REVIEW: Richard III (a One-Person Show), Jack Studio Theatre 6 – 10 June 2023

‘Fun, short, and informative, what more do you need? Go’ ★★★★ ½

The Duke of Gloucester greets us when we come into the auditorium. He is charming, in a slightly creepy, slightly sinister way. Bleach blond hair, a pronounced limp, a bottle of wine, Emily Carding doesn’t have much to help them build character, but what they have is more than enough. This is a quick, slick, no-nonsense retelling of Shakespeare’s tragi-comedy, emphasising the comedy bit, recruiting the audience as all the cast who are not Richard. We get to be his wives, his victims, his co-conspirators, and when he’s done with us, we get to have a sticky label attached pronouncing us ‘Dead’.

Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir and Emily Carding, the people who make up Brite Theater, have adapted Shakespeare’s “Richard III” into an hour-long one-person show, and they have done it superbly. The first half is funny, but the second half, when Richard has murdered his rivals, murdered his accomplices, married and discarded various strategically significant women, and is alone, gives Emily Carding a chance to display their acting chops – a sequence of phone calls from people he thought were allies but turn out not to be leaves him alone, isolated, desperate. To make those emotional beats work so well in a show that is fundamentally silly is high-class acting. They also speak the verse beautifully.

There are lots of shows riffing on a theme of Shakespeare’s, and lots of them are good fun. Few indeed bring much new understanding to the play. This one, without making any big statements, does. Fun, short, and informative, what more do you need? Go.  You might get to be Edward IV.

Photography credit: Colour photo by Dixie Sheridan and the black and white photo by Augustina Iohan

Richard III (a one-person show)

At Brockley Jack Theatre

Tues 6th – Sat 10th June at 7.30pm

Box Office https://brockleyjack.co.uk/jackstudio-entry/richard-iii-a-one-person-show/

Written by William Shakespeare

adapted by Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir & Emily Carding

Starring Emily Carding

Directed by Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir

Produced by Brite Theater

@BriteTheater

Reviewed by Chris Lilly