Shakespeare's Richard III

The Bard with a Hint of Cabaret: Richard III comes to Balham
Balham’s award-wining theatre group, Southside, will perform ‘Richard III’ by William Shakespeare.

The political arena of the inter-war years will form the backdrop to this production of Shakespeare’s thriller, depicting the Machiavellian rise to power and short reign of King Richard III of England.

Richard is the villain audiences love to hate – with wicked wit he draws us in as co-conspirators, even as he plots the murder of his nephews, the princes in the tower. And the story of intrigue and conspiracy, ambition and entitlement, will find echoes in current events.

Richard III, written in 1592-3, was the last in a series of plays about the civil war in England– the so-called ‘Wars of the Roses’, where the God-fearing Tudors finally wrest the crown from their nasty Yorkist enemies.

With an ensemble cast of 16, Southside will project the narrative onto the uncertain 1930s, showing us how a mix of extremism and apathy can allow a narcissistic and ruthless dictator to flourish.