In the early 1930s, the British press often made fun of Hitler, misled by his appearance into believing that he posed no real threat. With his little moustache and britches, Reece Dinsdale’s Richard doesn’t just physically recall the German dictator, he also plays up the comedy so that those around him fail to realise until too late that the joke’s on them.
Shakespeare’s Richard III is often defined by the lead actor’s physicality, by the way he presents his disfigurements both inside and out. But it’s the deformity of the state and its bureaucratic mechanisms that’s most interesting in Mark Rosenblatt’s revival, which comes with a stunning design by Conor Murphy.
Its circular playing space, grey walls and central drain suggest an autopsy room, the plastic curtains hinting that something is being concealed. On other occasions, a lighting rig drops to create a hi-tech prison and a general sense of being trapped. It’s as if what we are seeing is the bared, desolate soul of a nation drained by war and endless killing.
But looks are not everything, and Rosenblatt’s production doesn’t quite rise to the tantalising possibilities of its design. Even that central drain – and the initially glimpsed bubbling blood – is underused, and although he employs many contemporary theatre devices to good effect, including microphones and balloons, there is a failure of nerve. The production feels stranded between the modern and something more traditional. Sometimes there is an awful lot of acting going on.
Dinsdale may lack the lurking menace to make Richard’s comedy act really unsettling, but he is always very watchable. The acting honours belong to Dorothea Myer-Bennett’s out-manoeuvred Elizabeth. It’s a performance that offers equal parts clarity, intelligence and unshowy heartbreak.
- At West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds until 17 October. Box office: 0113 213 7700.
