I watched this recording of the performance via the Schaubühne Berlin website; they are making one show per day available, find them here.
This blog is quickly devolving into a Lars Eidinger/Thomas Ostermeier fan account, and I’m not sad about it. I skipped the live stream of Hamlet, having seen it live in 2012 at Barbican, in favour of seeing another interpretation, their Richard III. It did not disappoint.
This is wild Shakespeare. Messy, beautiful, visually poetic Shakespeare where the extremity and heightened images and physicality match the height of the language. Every time I watch a German production of Shakespeare, I’m reminded of how safe the work here in Canada and in the UK can be. How Bardolatry has superseded everything else; how if you do something other than stand and speak the words, somehow you are not “doing Shakespeare”. These productions are here to remind us that isn’t the case, nor is it necessary.
The industrial nature of the set, mashing images of high society ballgowns and suits with German club culture, and a warehouse aesthetic underscore how Richard is different from those around him. This Richard is plainly manipulative; we see the props and prosthetics that create his difference as items clearly clipped on to him. We see him manipulating his physical appearance, and using that to manipulate those around him. His early scene with Anne isn’t him seducing her but rather deploying his vulnerability into making her feel responsible for him - a choice which for me actually helps to rationalize Anne’s choice to marry him (especially when viewed from a modern context).
Finally, by re-framing Richard as a manipulative sociopath rather than a power hungry wannabe leader, the final battle scene re-positioned as occurring entirely in his mind, we simultaneously feel pity and revulsion for this terrible self-interested human.
The use of sound design and projected visuals on top of the industrial space further created a sense of the scale of this world. This is magnificent, huge, epic Shakespeare.