“The Plight of Richard III
Lyric Theatre, Belfast
★★★☆☆
Richard III, the infamous monarch ensnared in whispers of slayings and plots in 15th-century Britain, appears to accept the public image cast on him. Ridiculed for a physical deformity, he presents himself in Shakespeare’s masterpiece seemingly accepting the cruel slurs thrown at him, identifying himself as: “Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time.”
In Lyric Theatre’s rendition, the delivery of this line by disabled actor Zak Ford-Williams, playing Richard, takes on an unexpected depth, delivered with a gently poignant, unchallenged acceptance. Appearing in a wheelchair, he bears the serene, melancholic embodiment of internalised discrimination against the disabled.
Guided by director Oisín Kearney, and conceived during a phase when his co-adapter, Michael Patrick, faced a motor neuron disease diagnosis, this ingenious display portrays Richard living with a fatal illness. Observing him as disabled exposes the play’s harsh underbelly; as Richard approaches to challenge his sister-in-law, Queen Margaret, rendered hostile by Charlotte McCurry, he accuses her of meddling in royal succession, her brutal response is an echo of scornful ability-based derogatory remarks: “Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog”; “this poisonous bunch-backed toad”. The play does not shy away from ruthless language.
Ford-Williams (sharing the character with Patrick) portrays Richard with a childlike kindness and quiet voice, subtly poisoning the king and devising against his potential successors (all while building up a commendable collection of specially-designed wheelchairs). His association with Tyrrell, an assassin interpreted by Paula Clarke who communicates using British Sign Language, seems particularly prominent. It is noteworthy that most characters awkwardly gesture to communicate with her, other than Richard, who interacts gracefully: “Thou sing’st sweet music.”
The survey proposed appears to differentiate between characters with disabilities and those who have wronged them. Richard manipulates the derogatory tactics employed against him, self-identifying as a “delayed cripple” when he falls short on saving a duke from execution. He even puts his disability on show to the decision-makers in a bid to win their sympathy.
Despite the severity of various crimes and alliances, the key impression is more analytical than emotional, perhaps muted by excessively forced jokes. Even amidst the chaos of war, Kearney favours a metaphorical desolation over a blood-soaked battlefield, depicting mortality by stuffing an industrial bin full of dummy figures. In a play often punctuated with “Off with his head!”, the lack of graphic violence is somewhat surprising.
Nevertheless, there is a sense of advancement in Kearney and Patrick’s rendition. Archaeologists have established that Richard III was a sufferer of scoliosis, and over the years, the interpretation of the play has been viewed as a simplistic stereotype of disability. Performances have sought to shock its audiences with chilling representations of neurological disorders and unsettling uses of crutches.
Finally, Kearney and Patrick blur the boundaries between the performance and the actual world of theatre, featuring a physically-impaired actor reciting pieces from other Shakespearean plays, including Sonnet 16. In the sonnet, the urgency of the author’s encouragement to a young man to begin a family begins to feel inevitable, but its recital by a seriously ill person makes it sound as if everything is at stake: “Wage war on this merciless tyrant Time.”
The production continues its run at the Lyric, featuring in the Belfast International Arts Festival 2024, until Sunday, November 10th.