Matthew's Reviews > Richard III

This play may be more focused on a single character than any of Shakespeare's other plays. Richard is an absolute sociopath, and he tells you so right from the beginning, halfway through the opening monologue ("'Now is the winter...' God. It seems terribly unfair of Shakespeare to begin his play with such a famous speech. You don't like to put your mouth to it, so many other mouths have been there," wrote the actor Anthony Sher), but it's fascinating to witness his bloody rise and inevitable fall. Last time I read it directly after reading the three Henry VI's, because the quartet of plays collectively chronicles the War of the Roses. "Richard III" gains a lot from the context established by those other works, but it's also an unsatisfying conclusion to the excellent saga. But, even with as evil as Richard is, it would be hard no matter what to feel completely satisfied watching this scenery-chewing, complicated baddie die at the hands of a pure-as-the-driven-snow non-character who we've only just met. Henry VII (Richmond) has to be the most unsatisfying role to be cast in. The audience is grudgingly happy that good has apparently prevailed, but the whole time they're waiting for the curtain so that they can finally applaud the villain.