{"id":2997,"date":"2012-01-15T12:31:45","date_gmt":"2012-01-15T17:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/?p=2997"},"modified":"2017-08-21T12:07:36","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T17:07:36","slug":"kevin-spacey-as-richard-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/archives\/2997","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Spacey as Richard III"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday evening, I went to see the Bridge Project production of Richard III<\/em>, directed by Sam Mendes.<\/p>\n

I’ve always been a fan of Kevin Spacey, particularly in American Beauty<\/em>, The Usual Suspects<\/em>, and Glengarry Glen Ross<\/em>. I was very much looking forward to seeing him in my favorite play.<\/p>\n

He gave a fantastic performance as Richard III, but I thought the production took too many liberties with the text for the sake of their famous headliner. Take a look at an excerpt from the production script and I think you’ll see what I mean.<\/p>\n

ACT IV. SCENE II. London. The palace.<\/p>\n

Sennet. Enter KING RICHARD III, in pomp, crowned; BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, and others.<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nStand all apart Cousin of Buckingham!<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nMy gracious sovereign?<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nMine. 1970 Pontiac Firebird. The car I’ve always wanted and now I have it. I rule! But shall we wear these honours for a day? Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them?<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nStill live they and for ever may they last!<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nO Buckingham, now do I play the touch,
\nTo try if thou be current gold indeed.
\nI need to shape up fast: think now what I would say.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nSay on, my loving lord.<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nCousin, thou wert not wont to be so dull:
\nShall I be plain? I want to look good naked!
\nWhat sayest thou? speak suddenly; be brief.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nGive me some breath, some little pause, my lord
\nBefore I positively herein:
\nI will resolve your grace immediately.
\nExit<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

CATESBY
\nThe king is angry: see, he bites the lip.<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nLet’s all sell our souls and work for Satan because it’s more convenient that way. Catesby!<\/p>\n

CATESBY
\nMy lord?<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nRumour it abroad
\nThat Anne, my wife, is sick and like to die.<\/p>\n

Exit CATESBY<\/p>\n

Our marriage is just for show. A commercial for how normal we are when we’re anything but.<\/p>\n

Enter TYRREL<\/p>\n

Is thy name Tyrrel?<\/p>\n

TYRREL
\nJames Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject.<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nEly always said, “I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of him.” Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me are those bastards in the Tower.<\/p>\n

TYRREL
\nLet me have open means to come to them,
\nAnd soon I’ll rid you from the fear of them.<\/p>\n

Exit TYRREL.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Re-enter BUCKINGHAM.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nMy Lord, I have consider’d in my mind
\nThe late demand that you did sound me in.<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nWell, let that pass. Dorset is fled to Richmond.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nI\u2019ve heard we have the Marquess lost, my lord.<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nLose him? We didn’t lose him. It’s not like, “Whoops! Where’d Dorset go?” HE QUIT. Someone pass the asparagus, please.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nMy lord, I claim your gift, my due by promise,
\nFor which your honour and your faith is pawn’d;
\nThe earldom of Hereford and the moveables
\nThe which you promised I should possess.<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nI’m really thirsty. I used to dehydrate as a kid. One time it got so bad my piss came out like snot. I’m not kidding, it was all thick and gooey.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nWhat says your highness to my just demand?<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nThat guy is tense. Tension is a killer.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nMy lord!<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nI used to be in a barbershop quartet in Skokie, Illinois. The baritone was this guy named Kip Diskin, big fat guy, I mean, like, orca fat. He was so stressed in the morning…<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nMy lord, your promise for the earldom,–<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nTut, tut, thou troublest me; I am not in the giving vein to-day.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nWhy?<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nBecause I don\u2019t like you.<\/p>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nWhy, then resolve me whether you will or no.<\/p>\n

KING RICHARD III
\nWill you go to lunch? Go to lunch. Will you go to lunch?<\/p>\n

Exeunt all except for BUCKINGHAM<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BUCKINGHAM
\nThe greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday evening, I went to see the Bridge Project production of Richard III, directed by Sam Mendes. I’ve always been a fan of Kevin Spacey, particularly in American Beauty, The Usual Suspects, and Glengarry Glen Ross. I was very much looking forward to seeing him in my favorite play. He gave a fantastic performance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,12,35,92,3,99,119,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-histories","category-humor","category-review","category-richard-iii","category-shakespeare","category-snark","category-plantagenets","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2997"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6427,"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2997\/revisions\/6427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareteacher.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}