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It has been a tough year for the world’s most theatrical tyrants: Hosni Mubarak was deposed, Muammar Gaddafi met a humiliating end, and Kim Jong Il succumbed to poor health.
But few of these dictators could hold a candle to Shakespeare’s violently vile Richard III, who will be exhumed by Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey at BAM beginning on Jan. 10.
One of the longest plays in Shakespeare’s canon, the history travails the machinations of a handicapped outcast whose ruthless ascension to the throne mirrors the tyrannical rule of the world’s recently-departed despots. And nobody knows — and loves — super-villains quite like Spacey.
“With such a remarkable character before me, I have a feeling this one is going to be a memorable experience,” Spacey said.
Just think of his re-imagining of Richard III as a cross between Spacey’s most notorious characters — the deranged and maniacal Keyser Soze of “The Usual Suspects,” and the perverse and obsessive Lester Burnham of “American Beauty” — with a sprinkling of the detestable CEO he played in the black comedy, “Horrible Bosses.”
And Spacey’s director, Sam Mendes, who directed him in his Oscar-winning role in “American Beauty,” called the play’s titular role one that Spacey was “born to play.”
The production is the final installment of “The Bridge Project,” a three-year transatlantic exchange between the Brooklyn institution and London’s Old Vic theater, where Spacey serves as artistic director.
So pick up a ticket to Brooklyn’s must-see play of the year, and your winter won’t be discontented.
Richard III at the BAM [30 Lafayette Ave. between St. Felix Street and Ashland Place in Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100]. Jan. 10-Mar. 4, $30-$130. For info, www.bam.org.
Reach reporter Aaron Short at ashort@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2547.©2011 Community Newspaper Group
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