Richard III may have been a wretched monarch, but in the hands of Long Beach Shakespeare Company, his reign improves dramatically
By Patrick Dooley

It’s easy to miss the Richard Goad Theatre, wedged as it is between two insurance companies, but the place is worth finding for Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s stand-up exhibition of Richard III.

Richard III is among the most-presented of all Shakespeare-eana, but these players finesse the most out of well-worn material and a modest set. They appropriate both the audience’s front entrance and a rear exit to expand a shoebox-sized stage, but their acting is what takes you far outside the room.

Richard may have been a shitty king, but in the guise of actor Matthew McCallum, he approaches greatness—and McCallum’s performance seems to inspire his fellow castmates. Hateful, joyous and funny at the right times, his Richard is a hunchback who feigns pathetic in the company of his manipulated counterparts, hanging over a cane to prove himself unthreatening. It’s his secret with the audience until he “yields” to the pleas of the Lord Mayor and the Duke of Buckingham to take the crown, and caps his show of piety by ditching the cane and crediting God for his sudden cure.

As in so many shoe-string budget Shakespeare productions, most cast members play multiple characters, but none of them are unconvincing. As George, Duke of Clarence, Phil Apoian (also quite enjoyable) is murdered before the first of two intermissions, only to open the second part of the play as the very-much-alive King Edward IV. Even Robyn Hendricks succeeds in playing one note as Queen Margaret—and later, William Catesby. As Margaret, she’s all shifty-eyed creepiness; then later, as Catesby, she is, well, a spot-on Margaret. But, hey, shifty eyes are in, especially when you can see through them to the character behind. These players are good enough to do that.

Tags: Theater