Theatre Review
theFaction presents
RICHARD III
by William Shakespeare Directed by Mark Leipacher Associate Director Alexander Summers
Brockley Jack Theatre
14 OCTOBER – 8 NOVEMBER 2008
A review by David Hermann for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Let me try to do something theFaction theatre company didn't: keep it brief. When faced with a full-length fringe production of Richard III that features a twenty-five-strong cast, no real costumes, no props, and almost no music, there isn't an awful lot to say, except the painfully obvious: it's too long, and it gets boring. Which is a great shame in this case because the acting was consistently good; sometimes truly outstanding. Shakespeare's lines were, mostly, delivered with great attention to meaning and metre. Alright, so everyone's favourite Elizabethan mispronunciations occurred (for example 'troth', with a short 'o', as in 'rock', rather than, correctly, a long 'o' as in 'grow'), but so what? They happen on the big stage as much as they do here, and this is precisely the point: the standard of this fringe production is incredibly high where acting-potential is concerned and could square up against any West End Shakespeare, but direction and design are so rudimentary that watching this immense cast being blown about the stage like fallen leaves on a pavement feels like sitting in on a rehearsal. The clearly talented Mark Leipacher, for whom the production seems to serve as a career-vehicle (and why not!), is not only credited in the role of Richard III but also in that of director, and although one Alexander Summers is listed as 'Associate Director' it is doubtful at which point in the rehearsal process and to what extent Mr. Summers exercised his position as 'outside-eye'. Each awkwardly blocked scene seemed to cry out for a thorough reshuffling of its bumbling participants, for levels, and, most importantly, for greater variation in pace and energy. From beginning to end the entire cast seemed about ready to explode, so when the script demanded high emotion there was nowhere to go. It is for this reason above all others that a piece of theatre needs a director, in the same way a symphony needs a conductor. And if the conductor wishes to play the violin at the same time, he ought to make sure that somebody else conducts in his place, because otherwise the orchestra falls apart. The press release promises 'a powerful physical production... using the actors to create what they need to tell the story'. It mentions thrones and horses, and yes, there is a throne and there is a horse, both made out of actors and both very alluring, but in a show that's just under three hours long these valiant stabs at physical theatre just aren't enough to create the impression of 'a powerful physical production' - The rest of the show offers nothing remotely as exciting as a giant horse composed of nine actors. Unfortunately, a bit of sitting on each other and standing flat against a wall does not constitute physical theatre, and to call it that would be unfair to the real thing. 'theFaction', the press-release reads, 'also intend to challenge fringe theatre's unwritten dogma that casts must be meagre' - Fair enough, but let me suggest that the reason this dogma remains unwritten is because it is not, in fact, a dogma, but a quotidian state of affairs brought about by practical consideration rather than by doctrine. Is doubling up really a vice and not a virtue? I don't mean to attack theFaction in its arguably noble ambition to challenge what it perceives as a restriction, but considering that this production clearly needs work, I would like to suggest that a smaller cast, a felicitously abridged script and a thorough directorial once-over would have helped this barren epic to the fringe-transcending superiority it wants to command. Somewhat ironically, this production, like King Richard himself, is crippled by its own ambition. What a tragedy. Brockley Jack Theatre
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