Review of Kevin Spacey's Richard III

Well first off the Old Vic is probably one of the nicest theatres in London, or at least its one of my favourites. As for Shakespeare's Richard III it is one of my all time favourite plays - probably not the best Shakespeare, but it features one of the greatest characters ever written.

So it was a challenge for this production to live up to my expectations. And in many ways it did.

The biggest challenge is clearly for the title character, King Richard, who must embody both pathological cruelty, an ability to seduce the audience with his words, and enough wit and charm to balance these two. Kevin Spacey certainly seems to have the credentials. His delivery of the famous opening lines - 'Now is the Winter of our discontent...' was effective, but he really proved his point in the famed seduction scene with Lady Anne. He was to me as moving, involving Richard, what failed to work was when he got angry. His anger meant that many of the great lines got drown out amid yells and shrieks, and ultimately this diminished the amount of fear he could create. I might have been seduced by Spacey's Richard, by I was never truly scared.

The set was good, with an especially interesting use of a descending TV screen mid way through, that was extremely clever. What didn't work quite so well was the names of the characters blasting out in white lettering - it underestimated the intelligence of the audience - which is a bit patronising.

The actor playing Buckingham was excellent, his speech praising Richard was the right blend of jokes balanced with perfect timing all round. It was a delightful surprise to see the humour of this play so expertly used.

The actress playing Margaret was dreadful; hammy, melodramatic and conveyed the idea that she was once a monarch of the realm about as much as a demented bat banging the head against the wall would.

Nevertheless for this criticism, there were some excellent points, Spacey was tempting enough if not necessarily as bad to the bone as he could have been, and it ultimately didn't disappoint.

I will also add it is great that The Old Vic does under 25 tickets, it is important that many as possible are given the opportunity to enjoy the theatre!