Riccardo III by William Shakespeare, directed by Marco Carniti – until September 18, Silvano Toti Globe Theatre, Rome, by Daniel B. Gallagher

Lady Anna (Federica Bern). Margherita figlia di Clarence (Benedetta Cigliano), Duchessa di York (Paila Pavese), Elisabetta, moglie di Re Edoardo (Sandra Collodel ), Riccardo, Duca di Gloucester, poi Riccardo III (Maurizio Donadoni)

Director – Marco Carniti
Translator – Enrico Groppali
Adaption – Marco Carniti
Production – Politeama Srl

The Empire has gone Elizabethan. Built in 2003, the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre threatens to trump even the Baths of Caracalla (the city’s open-air opera house) as the cultural center point of Rome in the sweltering summer months. This season, the company cooked up an ambitious program including La tempesta (The Tempest), Pene d’amor perdute (Love’s Labour’s Lost), Sogno di una notte di mezza estate (A Midsummer Night’s Dream),Dodicesima notte (Twelfth Night), and now closing with Riccardo III (Richard III).

Don’t be scared by the foreign language. Even if you’ve read the play only once or twice, you’ll have no problem following the action (though rudimentary Italian will help). In fact, maximal accuracy was not the overriding concern for translator Enrico Groppali and director Marco Carniti. They rather aimed for superb drama and a strict fidelity to the plot. The result is an authentic, barely abridged Richard III (running over four hours) showing greater erudition and ingenuity than many productions in the original English.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!



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