DruidShakespeare: Richard III NYC Reviews and Tickets

86%

(43 Reviews)

Positive

98%

Mixed

Negative

Members say

Great acting, Great staging, Absorbing, Masterful, Riveting

About the Show

Part of the White Light Festival, Lincoln Center presents Ireland's Druid Theater Company's darkly comic take on Shakespeare's history.

"Conscience is but a word that cowards use, devised at first to keep the strong in awe.” Shakespeare’s Richard III is a chilling story of power and ambition. His ruthless monarch resonates through the ages in DruidShakespeare: Richard III, a darkly comic production from Ireland’s Druid theater company and Tony Award–winning director Garry Hynes.

Member Reviews (43)

Uneven tone, Uneven acting, Many words lost, Slow, Disappointing

See it if you love diff approaches to WS. R3 has gr material (truly evil villain) and he's well played. But much of the supporting cast disappoints.

Don't see it if you want to hear every word, want all strg actors, want intelligent cuts (over 3 hrs). Weird laughs added. Ugly costumes. Drags in parts.

Absorbing, Resonant, Intense, Intelligent, Great acting

See it if Monaghan's spritely, (!) corrosive Richard dominates this clear, crisp if icy production unless Mullan's fire-breathing Margaret is around

Don't see it if Haynes' tonally dark, incarcerating concept seems fitting for the current times yet feels somewhat distancing & chilly rather than chilling

Critic Reviews (5)

"All the World’s a Grave in the Druid ‘Richard III’: Garry Hynes’s visually hypnotic interpretation of the tale of the crookback who would be king sees medieval England as a cold slaughterhouse."
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"'DRUIDSHAKESPEARE: RICHARD III' Beguiles and Seduces at Lincoln Center's White Light Festival"
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"In Monaghan's interpretation, [Richard] is a startlingly original villain, an expert seducer whose first conquest is the audience…Garry Hynes' staging has a fine appreciation of the unhealed wounds lying underneath England's seemingly placid exterior."
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4/5 stars "One question this excellent production could be asking is whether the preternaturally evil Richard loses his kingdom not because he lacks a horse but because he's lost his sense of humor."
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