Richard III

Shakespeare at the West End, in the commercial theatre. And sold out, so presumably quite commercial despite the large cast, headed by the brilliant Mark Rylance, my favourite Shakespearean actor.

What was nice, but for me unusual, was this was a performance in Elizabethan dress. We are so used to seeing the Bard played in some form of modern dress and trying to relate it to some modern event, that it was nice to see it in "pure" form. Also, an all male cast, but the female parts being played "straight" and not like blokes in drag. It all works very well. And Richard III is a wonderfully unsympathetic character - truly a self-serving monster. Nice to have a pure villain, evil not because he was abused as a child or got into the wrong company or whatever that would be needed for a modern play, but evil for the purest of motives - total unrestrained self-interest. You know, the usual motive, in reality, but just too simple to be allowed any more.