PROVIDENCE - With his fierce new production of "Richard III," director Kevin Moriarty highlights the intersection of political power and general destruction. Although it's a cliché to say Shakespeare speaks to our times, this raw Trinity Repertory Company production rubs our noses in the responsibility we must take for horrifying acts perpetrated in our name.
Moriarty backs up the action a bit so that the play opens not in the court of King Edward IV, but with the battle to grab the crown and subsequent murder of his predecessor, King Henry VI, and his son. The move exposes how steeped in blood everyone already is, and how fragile the alliances are, so that it's much clearer how easily Richard III is able to manipulate this nasty crowd.
Although the story is historical, the setting is oh-so-contemporary, with Michael McGarty's cracked, two-tiered set resembling the ruins of a bombed-out place. The players, oblivious to the destruction around them, are dressed in conservative suits or camouflage, and Tyler Micoleau's bold lighting shines on the audience at least as often as the stage.
Brian McEleney seems like an unlikely choice to be "the misshapen Dick," but McEleney plays him as the perfect politician who "frames his face to all occasions," and the shock of recognition is almost as sickening as all the violence to come. Rather than the hunchback of history, though, Moriarty suggests injuries Richard sustained in the battle to make Edward IV king have turned him into "a shapeless infection of a man." But the leg brace and sling McEleney wears throughout the play don't quite create the same effect of a physical deformity that left lifelong psychological scars.
For his confessional asides, McEleney snaps his fingers and the lights come up on the audience. He preens and fawns, coming up the aisles to describe his plots and explain his goals. At the performance I saw, the crowd often laughed at his ridiculous self-awareness, which was fascinating, because even as the audience was drawn into his schemes, it became impossible to dismiss him simply as an evil villain. Watching him shift political positions with aplomb, profess his love and then brutally eliminate a foe, even dab his eyes with fake tears, will make you squirm in your seat more than you might expect.
Interestingly enough, in this production, the start of Richard's defeat comes during his final confrontation with Queen Elizabeth (Phyllis Kay). Although she clearly starts out with her own political agenda, Richard's destruction of her family and her country, topped off by his demand for her daughter's hand in marriage, finally makes her determined to help stop him. Kay's Elizabeth is regal and defiant, and through her sorrow (with a little help from Moriarty's careful editing of the text), she becomes a moral conscience in the play.
Moriarty doesn't flinch from graphic violence, and while fight choreographer Craig Handel makes the battles - punctuated by pistols and machine guns - flow fast and furious, the assassinations, especially the cold and careful murders of the young princes, are devastating.
Once again Moriarty, who made audiences reconsider "Richard II" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor," has given Shakespeare a refreshing edge. His production of "Richard III" demands we take responsibility for the actions of our leaders or ignore them at our peril.
