Richard III (The RSC Shakespeare) - Softcover

Eric Rasmussen; Jonathan Bate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0230221114 ISBN 13: 9780230221116

Publisher: Red Globe Press, 2008

Synopsis

With interviews with actors and directors including Simon Russell Beale, Bill Alexander and Richard Eyre, along with detailed looks at productions at the RSC and elsewhere, this new edition of the play offers innovative ways of looking at and understanding Shakespeare, as well as student-friendly notes and summaries.

About this title

Review:

"Now is the winter of our discontent," intones Richard, Duke of Gloucester at the beginning of Shakespeare's Richard III, one of his most abidingly popular plays, and one of the most chilling portrayals of political tyranny ever seen on stage. Richard emerges from the chaos which surrounds the reign of Henry VI, already dramatised by Shakespeare earlier in his career, determined to become king by removing his elder brother Edward IV by convincing him that their brother Clarence is plotting against the crown. The deaths of both Clarence and Edward take Richard inexorably towards the crown, and the series of murders and conspiracies that Richard masterminds confirms his claim that "I am determined to prove a villain". Richard's political and sexual charisma are truly chilling, and his seduction of Lady Anne, over her husband's corpse is one of the most disturbing scenes in Shakespeare. At another level, the play is also a strongly anti-Yorkist play, which has a vested interest in portraying Richard as such as vicious tyrant before seeing him toppled, ushering in a period of rule which prefigured the Tudor dynasty of which Elizabeth I was herself a part. The play has had a deep and lasting influence on audiences and writers; Brecht rewrote the play as The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, while both Laurance Olivier and Ian Mckellen have produced memorable film versions of Richard III, the latter updating the play into a 1930s fascist state ruled over by a Richard akin to Oswald Mosley. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

"A detailed, scholarly introduction...Siemon delivers impressively...particularly in the in-depth annotations that crowd the 290 pages of text in this epic history play....Commentary and collations...necessary notes, providing historical context, chronology, and pedigrees, a pattern that is repeated throughout this edition.

A detailed, scholarly introduction...Siemon delivers impressively...particularly in the in-depth annotations that crowd the 290 pages of text in this epic history play....Commentary and collations...necessary notes, providing historical context, chronology, and pedigrees, a pattern that is repeated throughout this edition.

Siemon's notes are elaborate when appropriate, and consolidated...when necessary...He authoritatively charts its historical contexts and complex theatrical afterlife. "Around the Globe magazine""

A detailed, scholarly introduction...Siemon delivers impressively...particularly in the in-depth annotations that crowd the 290 pages of text in this epic history play....Commentary and collations...necessary notes, providing historical context, chronology, and pedigrees, a pattern that is repeated throughout this edition.

Siemon's notes are elaborate when appropriate, and consolidated...when necessary...He authoritatively charts its historical contexts and complex theatrical afterlife. Around the Globe magazine

"

"A detailed, scholarly introduction...Siemon delivers impressively...particularly in the in-depth annotations that crowd the 290 pages of text in this epic history play....Commentary and collations...necessary notes, providing historical context, chronology, and pedigrees, a pattern that is repeated throughout this edition.

Siemon's notes are elaborate when appropriate, and consolidated...when necessary...He authoritatively charts its historical contexts and complex theatrical afterlife." --Around the Globe magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Red Globe Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0230221114
• ISBN 13: 9780230221116
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248