A chilling, thrilling new reading of Richard

Michelle Terry entirely does away with the character’s physical ‘deformity’

Richard III

Shakespeare’s Globe, London SE1 ★★★★☆

Shakespeare’s Richard III has been dogged by controversy almost from the moment the play was first performed. For centuries, there’s been the suggestion that Shakespeare weaponised the king’s real-life spinal condition for politically expedient purposes: certainly Richard’s “deformity” has become inextricably linked with his psychopathic villainy. It’s a problematic reading of disability, yet the issue has been further complicated in recent years by the argument that only disabled actors should play a character defined, so literally in the play, as “not shaped for sportive tricks”. When the Globe’s artistic director Michelle Terry announced earlier this year that she would play Richard, she faced a storm of protest from disabled actors who accused her of “cripping up”.

Terry boldly confronts both arguments in this vibrant feminist reinterpretation, performed by an all-female and non-binary cast, by doing away with Richard’s physical deformity entirely. Instead, she presents a Duke of Gloucester whose ability to shapeshift physically is central to his political success.

We see him first as an introverted incel-style misanthrope, brooding in the shadows at the coronation of Edward IV. As he gains in power and, yes, sexual confidence, he takes on the predatory entitlement of the modern toxic celebrity, a figure of nihilistic misogyny in glam heels and leather trousers. He snarls with a leering braggadocio, openly disposing of his wife, the wretched Anne, whom he ceremoniously parades like a trussed-up doll. The parallels with contemporary populist strong men, most obviously Trump, are unmistakable. This Richard would deep-fake a picture of himself praying in church if he could; instead he settles for a display of mocking piety at his coronation, enabled by Helen Schlesinger’s jauntily slimy yes-man Buckingham.

Terry is terrific at all this, even if her performance at times tips into technicolour caricature (a broad, crowd-pleasing hamminess is in danger of becoming the default mode at the Globe). The frenzied, jazz electronica soundtrack adds to the grotesque fun-house quality, as does the blood-stained pit into which bodies are tipped. (In pointed counterpoint is the murder of the princes: the two children are suffocated in the tower in queasy silence.)

Yet even if the text is itself manipulated to ram home the point – “let’s make England great again!” – the transparent ease with which Richard manipulates both public opinion and political convention is chilling. Moreover, Terry is entirely vindicated in her refusal to bow to the Twitter warriors: her Richard is a textbook reading in imaginative authenticity.

Elle While’s production goes at a pleasing lick, but underplays several crucial aspects. The dream sequence at Bosworth ought to expose a Richard subliminally tormented by his conscience, but

Terry’s all-on-the-surface performance leaves little room for that. And the deep sense of dynastic rot, as exemplified by the play’s various grief-ravaged queens, is missing. Perhaps most telling is the ultimate confrontation between Richard and Richmond (the future Henry VII), over in seconds. Yet for a man for whom the life and death of others is void of meaning, perhaps it’s fitting that his own death should be marked by bathos.

Until Aug 3; shakespearesglobe.com

Shapeshifter: Terry as Richard in the Globe’s all-female, non-binary production