The New Murrey and Blue blog

The Bard’s Richard is always getting “the treatment” – of the theatrical kind, that is. I’m not talking about a conventional, straightforward production of the play, but of performances that vie with one another to be most noticed. To me that should read most outlandish. Sorry, but I’m an aging old traditionalist….

Originally, of course, the play would have featured actors of the male variety playing the female roles, but that was the convention at that period. Since then performances have generally been true to the gender of the character. Until now, when anything seems to go. I believe there’s also been a straightforward musical, but I’m not too sure. Now women play Richard, and he also changes race. Then we have “only disabled actors” should play Richard. OK, so only real fairies should play Titania and Oberon, right? Then we have the play moved to Fascist Europe and even the present day. None of this works for me, I fear. Richard should be himself, and set in his true time and surroundings. Full stop.

The latest variation is to turn the play into hip-hop and call it Ricky 3. See here. Eh? Hip-hop? What’s that? I’m an old dear, so I had to investigate. According to trusty Merriam Webster, this is the definition:

1: a cultural movement associated especially with rap music

2: the stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rap  also : rap together with this music.

Next I had to check what rap was (yes, I’m that past-it and doddery). Merriam-Webster’s definition is:

“a type of music of African American origin in which rhythmic and usually rhyming speech is chanted to a musical accompaniment.

Well, it will certainly be different. I should imagine that if Richard himself were to attend this, his reaction would be that of a deer caught in headlights.

Nevertheless, I wish this new venture good luck. It has as much right as all the others to impress and entertain us.