Botanic Gardens, Glasgow
Four stars
There is a moment in
Jennifer Dick's four-actor adaptation of one of Shakespeare's second longest
play when the audience for her Bard in the Botanics production in the Kibble
Palace are goaded into joining in a chant of 'witches.' The rabble-rousing
chorale is aimed at Vanessa Coffey's Queen Elizabeth, at the time the most
powerful woman in the room. Cheerleader in chief is a would-be spin doctor who
duly films the response, presumably with the aim of streaming it online.
The moment is the perfect
illustration of how political discourse can descend into ugly name-calling when
populist ideologues dog-whistle their front-line cannon fodder into action.
Neither is it hard to see parallels with those who today would chase female
politicians down the street in packs, haranguing them as they go.
This is the world
whipped up with malevolent relish in Dick’s own production by Robert Elkin's
Richard, a camouflage-clad bundle of fury, whose strapped-up arm gives him an
endless point to prove. This sees him posing for a picture with a murdered
corpse. Slain by Richard’s own hand, the body now resembles a trophy, the
evidence of which looks set to be hung on the wall alongside his other prey.
As he makes his bid for
power, with Adam Donaldson's weasel-like Buckingham in tow, Richard's world is
one of press conferences and photo-ops, and of duplicitous marriages of
ambition as he takes advantage of Kirsty McDuff's shell-shocked Lady Anne. Elkin
storms his way up and down the Kibble, flanked by a contrasting mixture of
domestic and state paraphernalia on Carys Hobbs’ set.
As he finally achieves
his ambition and unsure what to do next, Richard goes on the offensive. Out of
this comes a world of paranoia and back-stabbing betrayal, as he is inevitably outsmarted
by those who would similarly be king in what might be the most telling
political play of our time.
The Herald, July 24th 2019
ends
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