Be it fall or winter, the Yorks and Plantagenets were ready to battle it out in KCST’s vibrant staging of this classic Shakespeare play.

King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe (KCST) opened their second play of the season, Richard III, to a sold-out audience. The production, with its run time of two and a half hours, was an intense but cathartic experience. 

The storyline, centered as it is around British history and the fight for succession, is more than complex. A quote from Lady Margaret perhaps best illustrates this: “I had an Edward till a Richard killed him; / I had a husband till a Richard killed him. / Thou hadst an Edward till a Richard killed him; / Thou hadst a Richard till a Richard killed him” (Richard III, IV. iv. 41). (She’s referencing five different characters here, by the way). KCST’s program included a helpful family tree, which director Charlie Coleman (BC’ 25) urged audience members to review before the show began. 

Richard III, who starts off as the Duke of Gloucester, opens the show with a declaration of his villainous intent–and certainly follows through. He manipulates Lady Anne into marriage (proposing over the coffin of her husband, whom he has just murdered). Queen Margaret (not the current Queen of England, but the last one), seeing the intent behind his actions and the general treachery and corruption of the royal court, curses nearly every character to a horrible death. Richard sends his brother, the Duke of Clarence, to the Tower of London under pretense of “safety,” then sends executioners to kill him. He does the same to his nephews, the young sons of the current king of England, Edward IV. Edward dies from illness, and with all other competitors to the throne safely dispatched, Richard assumes the crown. Yet almost immediately after he does so, the Earl of Richmond (a competitor for the throne) marches towards him with an army. Richard is forced to lead his men into battle, though his psyche is unraveling and he is haunted by the numerous ghosts of those he has murdered. He falls–calling out the famous line “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” (Richard III, V. iv. 13)–and is defeated. The Earl of Richmond assumes the throne, uniting England and ending the long, bloody War of the Roses (a real conflict, though dramatized here). 

The production as a whole leaned heavily into the classical style, with an elaborate set featuring richly patterned tablecloths, oil paintings, and candles. A wreath of white roses adorned Edward’s (Anne’s husband) coffin, a subtle pun on mourning and the War of the Roses on which the play centers. The costumes, too, were beautifully designed. Especially notable was the layered, puff-sleeved gown of the Duchess of York (Lily Khun, BC ‘25), which looked straight out of a royal portrait. An ensemble of musicians also accompanied the scene changes with live music, which, although they could have benefited from a pre-show tuning, added to the ominous atmosphere and kept the audience engaged in the show’s world.

While the staging might have been fairly straightforward, the director wasn’t afraid to make bold dramaturgical choices. The most obvious was the casting of two actors to play a single role: Both José Tallaj (CC ‘26) and Lily Bunger (CC ‘26) played Richard III. One actor represented Richard’s private life and the other his public face, Coleman explained in the pre-show speech. Which actor was playing which role wasn’t explicitly stated, a tactic that forced the audience to perform a constant analysis of the scenes, characters, and motivation. While it might have initially confused some audience members, it allowed for excellent staging. 

Some of the most memorable scenes of the play were Richard’s predatory manipulations of Anne and Elizabeth, the first for her hand in marriage, the second for her daughter’s (and his own niece’s) hand. These scenes, some of the most horrific displays of Richard’s stark manipulation and villainy, had Bunger-as-Richard advancing on the distraught female character, driving her forward with his words, while Tallaj stood behind her with his sword inches away from her back. The entrapment and threat of physical violence were clearly demonstrated in this breathtakingly powerful metaphor. The final battle scene was initially a bit anticlimactic. Four people on stage fighting, even with the added atmosphere of sound effects, only took the action so far. With such a large cast available, more choreography and movement would have helped create the chaos and sense of scale typical with a dramatic finale. The saving touch, though, was the show’s conclusion, which featured one Richard fighting against the other Richard, a concrete way of demonstrating the duke’s own self-destructive and tragic downfall.

The play was marked with impressively serious dramatic acting across the board. The performances of Lady Anne (Rosa Thomas) and Queen Margaret (Isabel Tongson, BC ‘26) specifically stood out. Anne’s death and Margaret’s monologue of a curse were some of the most chilling moments of the show. Part of the production’s success, however, was its balance of the tragic and the comic, a difficult yet essential line to tread in Shakespeare’s history plays. The melodramatic overacting of the Duke of Clarence’s executioners, played by Jess Liu (BC ‘27) and Clara Noggle (CC ‘28), provided much-needed comic relief and was a huge hit with the audience. So were the elements of physical comedy, like Buckingham slamming the decapitated Lord Hasting’s head onto a pike, and the various ironic asides to the audience. 

A triumphant rendition of a thorny classic, KCST’s Richard III left audiences both laughing and gasping. The story of a despotic leader’s ruthless climb to power, with his manipulation of key political positions to favor his own loyal (and corrupt) supporters, was…chilling. With its modern-day relevance and unique staging choices, the production truthfully earned its near-unanimous standing ovation.

Event images via Lorelei Gorton