Richard III

Richard III has been perhaps the most consistently popular of Shakespeare's plays right from its first performance, but to my knowledge has never been done in Wellington, except by the touring Old Vic Company in the late forties.

I've been hooked on the play for years, both for its superb theatricality and the chances it gives to the actor playing Richard. I think, also, that it would have to be done very badly indeed for an audience not to enjoy it. It moves at lightning speed, there are no sub-plots to impede its headlong pace and it has, in the best sense, a strong melodramatic ending.

I don't really want to talk about what sort of production I am doing for Unity, or what we are trying to achieve. If we succeed that should be obvious when you see the play. The middle of rehearsals, with the director fluctuating wildly between elation and despair, is not a good time to ask what it's going to be like. But whatever happens—it won't be dull.