Committie convincing as malevolent Richard III

RICHARD III’s relationships with the women in his life are brought very much into focus in the vividly imagined production of Richard III, on at the Maynardville Open-Air Festival. The play is directed by Geoffrey Hyland and stars the brilliant Alan Committie as the conniving, power-mongering king.

Richard is physically challenged. The real Richard probably had a scoliosis (curvature) of the spine. Shakespeare depicted him as a hunchback and with a withered arm.

Committie captures the disability, but at the same time he presents him as an imposing man with a presence – in leather, studs and chains – like a rocker from a metal band such as Judas Priest.

Committie revels in teasing out the seductive and charismatic power of the man. He is utterly convincing as this horrible man tells people exactly what he is going to do – and they follow. We gleefully watch as he does it.

Committie mused in a recent interview with me: “The power of this text is that someone like a Trump or a Boris Johnson or a Theresa May or Juju or this new guy who is running Brazil pop up when a society is loath to make quick decisions or look after or fix problems… These people often get into positions of power. I think that’s what Shakespeare is writing about here.”

It’s not all about Richard. It’s about the women.

Committie: “The landscape of Richard III is a masculine driven world… And yet the play is very much about the relationships between Richard and the women in his life: Lady Anne who he woos over the body of her dead husband and father-in-law; his mother, the Duchess, who detests him from the moment that he is born…” Lee-Ann van Rooi is dynamite as the Duchess of York, as is Anthea Thompson as Queen Margaret and Bianca Mannie as Lady Anne.

z Richard III is on until March 9, Monday to Saturdays, at 8.15pm. Tickets are R150-R220. Book at Computicket on 0861 915 8000 or via www. computicket.com or at Artscape on 021 4217695.