Real-life dramas echo in Ralph Fiennes’ Richard III
Now is the summer of our discontent.
In many parts of the world, this is a season of violence, uncertainty and political turbulence. It’s a time when real life seems to echo Richard III, William Shakespeare’s chilling drama of political ambition, civil war and the human cost of power.
World events give a powerful resonance to Ralph Fiennes’ performance as the ruthless ruler, determined to eliminate all rivals, in a Rupert Goold-directed production of the play at London’s Almeida Theatre.
Viewers can see it in movie theaters around the world starting with a live broadcast on Thursday in Britain and several other countries.
When Fiennes speaks the famous opening line — “Now is the winter of our discontent” — some in the show’s London audience have found themselves nodding in recognition. Only the season seems wrong.
“The line that popped (out) last night was when I say ... ‘What, think you we are Turks or infidels?’” says Fiennes, on a sweltering summer day when news bulletins were reporting the attempted coup in Turkey.
He says the play explores the nature of authority, and contrasts people “who are looking for a right, ethical, balanced, authoritative figure and people who want to abuse power.”
“I think a version of the same power play is happening all over the world, all the time,” Fiennes says. “It’s constantly out there, whether it’s in America now or possibly in Russia or Hungary or Turkey.”
Fiennes is no stranger to evil. He played a Nazi concentration camp commander in Schindler’s List, and a generation of moviegoers knows him as villainous Lord Voldemort, nemesis of boy wizard Harry Potter.
Though he has recently been flexing his comic muscles in films including Wes Anderson’s
The Grand Budapest Hotel and the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar, Fiennes relishes exploring humanity’s dark side.
“You can’t really play evil as a concept,” Fiennes says. “You can play specific intention.”
With the hunchbacked Richard, “you can find a way into the anger and the way in which he despises the world”.
The role is physically demanding — Fiennes has to contort to embody the character’s deformity, and build to a taxing battle scene as the armor-clad king meets his fate at the battle of Bosworth Field.
“I’m definitely feeling the impact of it,” says the 53-yearold actor. “The theater has been very good at providing me mini-massages, especially on two-show days.”