Stratford's Richard III: One Limp Or Two? The Woke Question by Robin L. Harvey

Staging Richard III at Stratford Festival in 2022: artistic conundrum or woke wallowing? By Robin L. Harvey @RobinharveyL

Colm Feore’s portrayal of Richard III at this summer’s Stratford Festival seemed to have completely dodged the debate over the fair representation of people with disabilities . Perhaps Feore’s performance as Richard eluded criticism even though he employed an old theatrical trope that equates disabled or deformed with evil. Perhaps this is because it’s the first time the play’s been staged since an archeological expedition in Leicester uncovered the real Richard’s grave under a parking lot in 2012.

Maybe reality overshadows a pretend play, especially one that now competes with real bones and body bits. Once the bones were studied and analyzed in 3-D specialized imaging the world learned the real flesh-and-blood Richard was neither a hunchback, nor a lame limper with a withered arm, unlike Feore’s interpretation.

People may think it’s easier to see a line between the factual and artistic truths as they apply to Richard the real versus Richard the pretend. Shakespeare’s pretend Duke of Gloucester was so desperate to become King he murdered his brother, a wife and two nephews to get there. No one really knows the truth behind the tactics the real Richard did or did not use.

Whatever the reason, Feore gets away with playing Richard all “cripped up” to use the vernacular of disability activists. As played, his body is deformed, his grotesque leg twists and limps and he sports a withered, deformed hand, all while bounding around the stage like an arachnoid on steroids.

In reality Richard’s curved spine would have caused a high tilt to his right shoulder and a slightly shortened torso leaving the rest of his body and its movements normal. Period. Shakespearean literalist or not, Feore shamelessly cavorts and thump-humps about the stage until he gains the dignity of the crown. So, it was no surprise this past week when the “disability consultant” hired to ensure “cultural competency” and sensitivity in Festival productions blatantly distanced herself from Feore’s crippled portrayal of Richard.

Feore’s “physical representation of disability was entirely his own,” she said. If that’s true, why would Stratford employ consultants and then not use them? To virtue-signal that change is underway, when it is not? Or to placate cynics who see any change as a step toward the politically correct world known as Wokestan?

Artistic Director and festival leader Antoni Cimolino gives no meaningful guidance here. In his program notes he acknowledges, despite Feore’s cavorting, that Richard’s scoliosis would not “impact his ability to walk.” Still, he says scoliosis would pose “other challenges” before entering fuzzy logic land to describe them as “prejudice and assumptions” that left Richard “marginalized.”

“Ultimately it is not Richard’s body that causes evil but his mind’s deliberate decision to use evil means for his own ends,” Cimolino writes, conveniently having it both ways and sidestepping controversy. His Richard is besotted by a guilty conscience, victimized and marginalized by prejudice, yet he still remains essentially evil. That’s crooked-confusion speak to cloud the debate about equity in arts casting.

Cimolino opened this can of worms when he made Richard III’s opening scene a modern re-enactment of the famous archeological dig. We now know the facts. However, he certainly did not close the can with his final scene in the play, one that depicts Richard’s reburial at Leicester Cathedral in modern attire. Once this can’s been opened it is unlikely it can be resealed.

So maybe it’s time for gutsy choices. Time to eat the worms, however unpalatable, and digest them so workable practices to ensure inclusion in casting might be established once and for all.

UPDATE: Since publication we received this from Stratford communcations manger Melissa Mae Shipley": “Debbie worked with the director and the actors. It’s a process that is interpreted by all involved. She helped other actors in the way they treated and responded to Richard. She helped Colm approach various situations according to the limitations of his deformity. She didn’t tell him exactly how to portray the character but provided the nuance that an able-bodied person might miss.

I read through your piece this morning and wanted to thank you for holding our portrayal up to the light. It’s important, and I’m glad to know that we have writers like you out there.

Warmly,

Melissa

 Melissa Mae Shipley (she/her) [what's this?]

Communications Manager

@RobinharveyL