LEARNING RESOURCES SYNOPSIS 2 QUICK FACTS 3 PERFORMANCE HISTORY 4 SOURCES AND SHAKESPEARE SHAPING HISTORY 5 HISTORY OF WOMEN PLAYING MALE ROLES IN SHAKESPEARE 6 CHARACTERS 8 THEMES 12 FROM THE DIRECTOR 17 DESIGN 18 OTHER RESOURCES 21 ACTIVITIES 23 EXERCISE ONE 23 EXERCISE TWO 24 EXERCISE THREE 25 EXERCISE FOUR 26 LEARNING RESOURCES RICHARD 3 © Bell Shakespeare 2017, unless otherwise indicated. Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used, Page 1 of 26 reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools RICHARD 3 SYNOPSIS England is enjoying a period of peace after a long civil war between the royal families of York and Lancaster, in which the Yorks were victorious and Henry VI was murdered (by Richard). King Edward IV is newly declared King, but his youngest brother, Richard (Gloucester) is resentful of Edward’s power and the general happiness of the state. Driven by ruthless ambition and embittered by his own deformity, he initiates a secret plot to take the throne by eradicating anyone who stands in his path. Richard has King Edward suspect their brother Clarence of treason and he is brought to the Tower by Brackenbury. Richard convinces Clarence that Edward’s wife, Queen Elizabeth, and her brother Rivers, are responsible for this slander and Hastings’ earlier imprisonment. Richard swears sympathy and allegiance to Clarence, but later has him murdered. Richard then interrupts the funeral procession of Henry VI to woo Lady Anne (previously betrothed to Henry VI’s deceased son, again killed by Richard). He falsely professes his love for her as the cause of his wrong doings, and despite her deep hatred for Richard, she is won and agrees to marry him. Richard creates conflict with Queen Elizabeth’s family, accusing them of Clarence’s demise. Queen Margaret, a long sufferer of Richard’s vengeance warns them all against him. Edward VI, now quite unwell, tries to make peace between the parties, yet Richard interrupts them to report that Clarence is dead. Feeling responsible, Edward laments that no one pleaded for Clarence, and mournfully recounts how they fought valiantly together on the battlefield. In his grief, Edward’s illness worsens and he dies. The Duchess of York and Queen Elizabeth mourn for Edward. Rivers counsels Elizabeth to have her son, Prince Edward V, crowned as King. Richard and Buckingham plot to remove the Prince who is journeying home. Richard has the Prince’s traveling companions Rivers and Grey imprisoned and later executed (at the hands of Ratcliffe). Queen Elizabeth flees with her youngest son, but her actions are condemned. The Prince is retrieved and Richard holds the two young heirs lodged in the Tower. Awaiting Edward V’s coronation, Catesby tries to establish Hastings’ loyalty to Richard, but Hastings rejects his claim to the throne. Richard, now Lord Protector, discusses Edward’s coronation with the Bishop of Ely. When Hastings arrives, Richard names him a traitor and he is beheaded. Buckingham and Richard feign bereavement to the Lord Mayor over the loss of their ally, and convince him of Hastings’ guilt, gaining support of the people. Richard then claims the illegitimacy of Edward IV and his children to the crown. Richard is offered the crown: he feigns rejection but then accepts it. The Duchess laments birthing Richard and Anne shares her regret in marrying Richard, and her reluctance to take the role of Queen. Buckingham, Richard’s closest ally, is unwilling to assist him in his plot to kill the young Princes. Richard names him a traitor and Buckingham eventually deserts him. Richard enlists Tyrell to arrange the murders of Buckingham, the young Princes, and his wife Anne. Meanwhile Richmond, a descendant of a secondary arm of the Lancaster family, emerges as a challenger to the throne and noblemen quickly defect to support him. Queen Margaret, Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of York all grieve for their lost husbands and children at the hands of Richard. Margaret is pleased to see others befall the same destruction as herself and at last resolves to go to France. Richard then convinces Elizabeth to accept his proposal to her daughter, yet she manages to forestall him whilst secretly promising young Elizabeth to Richmond. Ratcliffe informs Richard that Richmond is approaching, and messengers report uprising and rebellion. Now in the Bosworth Field, both Richard and Richmond have set up opposing camps. As Richard sleeps, ghosts of his victims visit him and express support for Richmond. The following morning Richmond invades England. Richard is killed in the battle and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII. Promising a renewed era of peace for England, the new king is betrothed to young Elizabeth, uniting the warring houses of Lancaster and York. LEARNING RESOURCES RICHARD 3 © Bell Shakespeare 2017, unless otherwise indicated. Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used, Page 2 of 26 reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools RICHARD 3 QUICK FACTS Shakespeare’s second longest play after Hamlet, Richard 3 is grouped in the First Folio with the histories and completes Shakespeare’s first Tetralogy with Henry VI (Parts 1-3). Although first published by Andrew Wise in 1597 in quarto form, the play is believed to have been written no later than 1592 as it is said to have influenced Marlowe (Edward II), who died in 1593. At its time of conception, Richard 3 was the longest ever stage play written in English, a title only to be trumped by Hamlet in 1601. The play is believed to have been hugely popular in its day, due to its numerous publications, and is still considered the most beloved of its genre. It contains the longest soliloquy in the entire Shakespeare canon and the most soliloquies in a single act – Richard has five soliloquies in the first three scenes. It also contains possibly the most famous line that Shakespeare did not write “Off with his head; so much for Buckingham”. The play has 52 named characters, the most of any in Shakespeare’s canon and next to Hamlet, Richard has the most lines of any Shakespeare character, numbering 1145. Despite Richard’s infamous villainy, the play is deliberately and notably non-violent. Whilst Richard is responsible for the deaths of eleven characters, two of those being children, they all die or are killed off stage and out of sight, whilst Richard himself is the only character to fall to his fate before the audience. Outnumbering any other Shakespearean play Richard 3 was published in quarto form six times before the first folio was produced in 1623: five of those being within Shakespeare’s lifetime. However, unlike the Folio, the quarto editions which often list the play as a tragedy are notably shorter, and believed to have been produced by Shakespeare’s actors through memorial reconstruction and are thus considered of lesser authority. LEARNING RESOURCES RICHARD 3 © Bell Shakespeare 2017, unless otherwise indicated. Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used, Page 3 of 26 reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools RICHARD 3 PERFORMANCE HISTORY There is no record of the first performance of Richard 3, although it was most likely first viewed in late 1592 or early 1593, with Richard Burbage playing the title role. The earliest recorded performance was in 1633 for Charles I in honour of Queen Henrietta’s birthday. The play was hugely popular and Richard’s famous cry ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ (Act 5, Scene 4) was not only repeated in different scenarios of plays for the next 100 years but became a ‘popular catchphrase on the streets of London. Colley Cibber’s adaptation of Richard 3 was the most successful during the restoration and was staged for the next 150 years until 1845 when Shakespeare’s version returned to popularity. Notable stage performances over the years include the famed Edmund Keen in Drury Lane in 1814, in which he claimed his performance was so moving ‘he could not feel the stage under him.’ African American actor James Hewlett took on the role in 1821 as did silent film actor John Barrymore in 1920. Interestingly, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, slayed Richard whilst making his stage debut as Richmond at the Charles Street Theatre in Baltimore in 1855. In recent years, Richard has been played by such acclaimed actors as Ralph Fiennes, Peter Dinklage and Kenneth Branagh. The two best-known film versions of Richard 3 star Laurence Olivier and Ian McKellen in the title role. Olivier played Richard on stage for many years during the 1940s before making a film version in 1955. McKellen’s film was directly based on a stage production he previously toured to sell-out crowds throughout Europe. It was famously set in a Nazi-esque England of the 1930s. McKellen wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation himself. The Al Pacino film Looking for Richard is a documentary of rehearsals of specific scenes from the play, and a meditation on the play’s significance. Pacino had played the role on stage 15 years earlier. In 2011, well-known film actor Kevin Spacey starred in an Old Vic production directed by Sam Mendes. The production toured the United States and even visited Australia. Spacey had played the role of Richard’s henchman, the Duke of Buckingham, in the Pacino film. LEARNING RESOURCES RICHARD 3 © Bell Shakespeare 2017, unless otherwise indicated. Provided all acknowledgements are retained, this material may be used, Page 4 of 26 reproduced and communicated free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes within Australian and overseas schools RICHARD 3 SOURCES AND SHAKESPEARE SHAPING HISTORY The principle source of information available to Shakespeare about Richard was Sir Thomas More’s History of King Richard III and the chronicle histories of Hall and Holinshed.