Greg Hicks mesmerises the audience for three hours with a performance that mingles sadism, misogyny, venom and flashes of humour, distilled and concentrated by the Arcola theatre's tiny stage. Mehmet Ergen's taut production allows one of our greatest Shakespearean actors free rein to exploit all the viciousness that Shakespeare intended. Richard is a character without any redeeming features, but that doesn't mean he's one-dimensional. In the RSC's Histories cycle a decade ago, Jonathan Slinger made him a psychopath; at the Old Vic, Ian Mckellen played him as a fascist 1930s dictator, and Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic delivered his own unique take on the character.
The Arcola is an intimate arena, and this production gives us the private Richard rather than the public. Hicks catches the razor-sharp intelligence of Richard and his capacity to manipulate and cajole. He is always several steps ahead. When his loyal follower Buckingham hesitates over the plan to murder the princes in the Tower, Richard instantly sees him as an enemy. One might argue that Richard's villainy is only a matter of degree, because most of the other characters are also fairly unpleasant types. The chief baddie in this production is the chilling executioner Catesby, played by Matthew Sim as a man who seems to enjoy killing for its own sake. Overall, the cast is exceptionally strong, with Sara Powell, Annie Firbank, Georgina Rich and Jane Bertish all making a strong impact as Richard's female victims.
Hicks has appeared many times in small-scale productions at the Arcola, including a memorable solo performance in the Kreuzer Sonata. Here he exploits the dimensions of the theatre to eyeball the audience and create a kind of complicity; but we sense that this Richard of Gloucester would not hesitate to eliminate any one of us instantly if we got in his way.
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