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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Richard the Third Also see Susan's reviews of BLKS, Once, Cyrano de Bergerac, Nell Gwynn, and Broadway Center Stage: The Music Man
To begin with, Debra Booth's scenic design turns the stage of Washington's Sidney Harman Hall into an enormous, empty industrial space with dirty walls and large swinging doors, not to mention a bank of lights (designed by Lap Chi Chu) that belongs in an operating theater—foreshadowing. There's no grandeur in the royal court of Edward IV (David Bishins) and Queen Elizabeth (Robynn Rodriguez), only scattered pieces of furniture. Lindsay Jones has fashioned a sound design of mechanized noise and slashing heavy metal music. As the malevolent Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Matthew Rauch manipulates the people around him but takes little pleasure in the results. So he frames one of his brothers as a traitor to the other, seduces the widow of a man he killed, and sways the populace to support him; he stays aloof through it all. Rauch does not play Richard with the traditional crooked back, rather depicting his physical disability with a leg brace, a cane, and on occasion a loping walk. In this production, the aggrieved women in Richard's orbit register more strongly than the central figure. Lizan Mitchell gives a blazing performance as Margaret of Anjou, widow of King Henry VI and mother of his son, both of whom were killed by Richard. Her furious curse is like an incantation. Rodriguez as a queen robbed of her crown and her sons, Sandra Shipley as Richard's tormented mother, and Cara Ricketts as the pitiable Lady Anne begin at cross purposes to Margaret but join with her as the bodies pile up. Muse has a pessimistic view of how a nation might deal with such an untrustworthy leader. Some of Richard's torturers wear white doctor's coats, eagerly helping the regime, and the people of England are a mob, easily led and ready for violence against whoever is the enemy at any time. They welcome Richard with their walking staffs and their knives and swords, reacting with the emotion Rauch spurns, but later they do the same for the man who kills him and takes power.
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