“A bold play packed full of stimulating ideas about how bad history often makes for the best stories….The Tragedy of King Richard III emerges as a first-class theatre experience that exposes the truth of the statement that you don’t know what you don’t know…Its ideas are so invigorating that they almost demand a second viewing to fully grapple with the show’s unexpected provocations; I’m planning my next visit now.”
BLUE CURTAINS
“The most intriguing, challenging and satisfying theatrical event of the year so far. An exhumation, a thorough examination by brilliant minds, a truly formidable team of creatives…The Tragedy of King Richard III is bold and brilliant, death-of-theatre-defying stuff, giving the Australian theatrical landscape permission to change again, to carry on evolving,”
XS ENTERTAINMENT
“Such an irreverent approach won’t suit everyone, but I found it both challenging and refreshing. There is a wild irrepressible experimental energy that reigns supreme. If you like your theatre raw, this is absolutely the place to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
WEEKEND NOTES
“History is pretty much bunk, but King Richard III is alive and kicking.”
SCENESTR
With leaders like these, who needs enemies?
Crippled king. Fierce warrior. Cunning psychopath. For four centuries, Shakespeare’s Richard III has been regarded as the greatest villain in world drama; a bottled spider, loved and loathed for spinning a web of lies and violence around the monarchy.
In 2012, Richard’s resting place was finally uncovered: an unmarked, unremarkable, shallow grave beneath a supermarket car park – too small for the remains or the myth. But Richard – the crooked shadow, the symbol of unchecked ambition – is larger than any one person, living or dead.
This year, he’s getting the royal treatment.
The Tragedy of King Richard III is an excavation of the play, the man and ourselves. Bigger than history, bigger than Shakespeare, this is a story of rampant revenge with some hard questions for us all: What are our dreams of power? Have we created a civilisation that corrupts those who rule it? Or do we need their corruption – to let us off the hook?
Armed with some of Queensland’s most intrepid theatre makers, this promises to be a fast and furious blood-soaked battle royale, where nobody’s getting out clean – or alive.
Written by Marcel Dorney & Dan Evans, departing from the text by William Shakespeare.
Created and Devised with Designer Kieran Swann
– and Composer Guy Webster, Lighting Designer Jason Glenwright, and performers Amy Ingram, Todd Macdonald, Naomi Price.
Presented by LaBoite Theatre Company, 21 May – 11 Jun 2016.
photography by Dylan Evans
KIERAN SWANN 
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