Festival celebrates the timelessness of Shakespeare’s work
‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Richard III’ take the stage at Miller Outdoor Theatre
When the Duke of Gloucester speaks the first lines to “Richard III,” he looks directly at the audience, flashes a devilish grin and begins to tell us of a dastardly, murderous plan:
“Now is the winter of our discontent …”
The famous monologue sets the stage for one of Shakespeare’s mostbeloved tragedies, starring a villain that’s at once vile and charismatic. Sound familiar? “It’s the same reason why ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ are so popular,” says Lenny Banovez, the New York-based theater director who will helm a production of “Richard III” that runs at the Houston Shakespeare Festival Saturday though Aug. 6. The festival also includes the comedy “Twelfth Night,” which debuts Friday night, with the two plays alternating nights.
Listen to the machinations of Gloucester, who soon sees a bloody rise to the throne as the titular star of “Richard III,” Banovez says, and you’ll realize that Shakespeare set the stage for contemporary
storytelling.
“We’re drawn to these stories,” he says. “It’s a bad guy with an ability to charm us and win us over. You show the audience the dark, seedy underbelly, and they go, ‘Wait a sec.’ It causes them to sit forward, until they like Richard so much, then he does something and we’re pushed over the edge. “He’s so charming.” So when you see Houston Shakespeare Festival artistic director Jack Young, who stars as Gloucester, also known as Richard III, on the stage, it won’t be a coincidence if you’re reminded of Kevin Spacey in “House of Cards,” another charming power broker who is almost fun to hate.
Of course, Richard’s modernday incarnations don’t stop there.
“Walter White is another one,” Young says, referring to the television series “Breaking Bad” as yet another villaincentric story that owes its existence to Shakespeare’s tragedy.
The timelessness of a story about someone who we simultaneously love and hate, of course, is just one aspect of the universal appeal of Shakespeare.
Houston’s production of “Richard III” comes hot off of the heels of the controversial production of “Julius Caesar” by the Public Theater in New York, in which the leader of Rome is dressed as Donald Trump, complete with red ties and golden hair. The outrage that that piece inspired was yet another reminder of how fresh Shakespeare can often feel.
No, this festival production of “Richard III” doesn’t make an overt connection to contemporary politics. But the point is that the Bard’s work is staged over and over again for a reason. Young and Banovez say that, however a company chooses to stage a Shakespeare play, all the relevant thematic material is right there in the text.
“Even without all that wrapping paper, without something like (Public Theater director) Oskar Eustis’ strong parallel, this stuff comes up. Buckingham is a spin artist, just like, name your favorite news anchor,” Banovez says, referring to Richard III’s right-hand man who manipulates people to get Richard to the crown. “The parallels are there, even when you don’t try to make them. The themes rear their heads because they’re structurally there. The audience can go, ‘Oh … that’s that. Did you see that?’ ”
Rob Shimko, executive director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival, agrees.
“Ben Jonson, the playwright, in his preface to the First Folio, says of Shakespeare, ‘He was not of an age but for all time.’ It sticks around as a quote because it’s so prescient,” Shimko says. “Shakespeare has proven to be open enough, loose enough in his writing, yet also incredibly precise. He’s interested in ambition, love, facts, power, drunkenness and revelry and music and poetry. He’s such a comprehensive playwright.”