Richard III

Richard Loncraine and Ian McKellen move the play to a 1930s Britain and make Richard a fascist putschist. There are uniforms, rallies, red banners and radio addresses, and Shakespeare's verse is dropped into that world unaltered, where it fits far better than it has any right to. The adaptation grew out of Richard Eyre's Royal National Theatre production, also starring McKellen, who then co-wrote the screenplay with Loncraine. The locations are part of the argument: Battersea Power Station becomes a bombed out military base and Bankside Power Station stands in for the Tower where Clarence is drowned. Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent and Robert Downey Jr fill out the court. The most quoted line in the play arrives here with a jeep stuck in rubble, and the staging keeps it from turning into a joke. The text is heavily cut, several figures evaporate quickly, and viewers who do not know the play will lose the thread at a couple of turns. Who it is for: people open to bold reinvention of a classic. Who it is not for: purists wanting the full text.