Off-Broadway Play Reviews—Shakespeare Onstage

Richard III
Written by William Shakespeare; directed by Garry Hynes
Performances through November 23, 2019
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 524 West 59th Street, NY, NY
lincolncenter.org/white-light-festival

Macbeth
Written by William Shakespeare; directed by John Doyle
Performances through December 15, 2019
Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, NY, NY
classicstage.org

Aaron Monaghan in Richard III (photo: Richard Termine)

There are many ways to perform Shakespeare, as two current productions demonstrate with varying degrees of success. Garry Hynes returns with her latest DruidShakespeare staging, Richard III. The story of the English king, whose deformity is as much sociopathic as it is physical, is filled with soliloquies in which Richard ingratiates himself with the audience, forcing us to engage with and even be charmed by him as he goes about committing murder and other atrocities on his way to the throne.

Shakespeare’s words are such that even Lady Anne—whose beloved husband was mercilessly killed by Richard—inevitably falls for Richard’s wooing. But Hynes has made her otherwise impressive Richard, Aaron Monaghan, overdo the faux friendliness and approach “wink wink nudge nudge” territory which, rather than bringing us uncomfortably close to Richard, makes it all rather risible.

Death in the form of a skull literally hangs over the proceedings in a box, an obvious and unnecessary visual from the otherwise no-nonsense director. Hynes’ other invention is a pit at the front of the stage—the greyscale set is by Francis O’Connor—in which the bodies of the victims of Richard’s murderous parade pile up, one by one. (Some of the executions are done with an anachronistic stun gun.) It’s inevitable that, after the climactic battle, Richard’s body is the last to fall into the pit.

Hynes paces the action nicely while most of the performers do well by her direction, especially Garrett Lombard as Hastings, Rory Nolan as Buckingham and Siobhán Cullen as Lady Anne. There’s also the visceral flourish of having Shakespeare’s poetry intoned by Irish actors, some with thick brogues, instead of the usual Queen’s English or flat American accents.

But for all its straightforwardness, this Richard III is most memorable for its lead actor’s lameness. In fact, Monaghan’s limp is so pronounced and authentic I was worried for his physical well-being by the end of the play.

Nadia Bowers and Corey Stoll in Macbeth (photo: Joan Marcus)

Director John Doyle has put his own stamp on many a classic musical, especially those of Stephen Sondheim. Now he’s attempting to do the same with Shakespeare, but streamlining what’s already an elegant and brilliantly paced tragedy like Macbeth into an hour and 45 minutes sans intermission is to sabotage what makes Shakespeare great.

Doyle’s other conceit is to have a cast of nine play all the parts, so the weird sisters become a disembodied—and eerily effective—chorus. But having such a small cast on a bare wooden set lays bare Doyle’s deficient adaptation, especially when Corey Stoll’s stolid Macbeth takes center stage.

Stoll is also outacted by his wife, Nadia Bowers, as Lady Macbeth. Admittedly, hers is the juicier part, but she gets real mileage out of it: her sleepwalking scene, brief though it is, is the most resonant in the play. But since Doyle’s Macbeth flies by so quickly there’s no chance of following the tragic arc which Shakespeare so marvelously develops, leaving a sense of glimpsing mere highlights, like Cliff’s Notes for audiences that haven’t seen the whole play.