Sit down with Robert Walsh and talk about William Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” and it doesn’t take long to notice the elephant in the room.
After all, “Richard III” is a play about an egomaniacal, mentally unhinged man who lies and bullies his way into the most powerful position in the land, despite the fact that he never actually wins a popular vote and he has no aptitude for the job.
“The more time I spend with the play, the more harrowingly real it feels,” says Walsh, referring to the play that was written around 1592. “How can something this old still have so much relevance? It’s frightening.”
Walsh, a longtime Newton resident, has been seeing lots of elephants recently. They pop up constantly in the rehearsal room, where he’s directing Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of “Richard III” at the Swedenborg Chapel (across from Sanders Theatre) in Cambridge, Feb. 7 to March 11.
As Walsh and his cast piece through the politics of the play, it often feels like they’re unpacking our current political situation.
“The stuff that (Richard III) does is completely outside the lines of protocol,” says Walsh. “You can’t quite believe what you’re seeing. It reminds me a bit of ‘Coriolanus’ – the people are driven more by emotion than rational thinking. They’re a bit like cattle.”
Despite any connections with today’s politics, Walsh says he’s opting to let the play speak for itself; no overt nods to our own “Richard III” moment.
“In this instance, there’s no spin necessary,” says Walsh. “You just want the audience to receive it, and let them make the connections to their own lives now. I think people will sit there and be amazed at how much Shakespeare was a prophet.”
However brutal our current political situation may appear, at least no one has resorted to murder-for-power, as far as we know. Character assassinations, yes, but no actual corpses, yet.
For Richard III, murder is a career move. He kills potential adversaries the way some people tweet. He even assassinates the two boy princes who could lay claim to the crown.
Despite all this evil-doing, Richard remains an oddly compelling, even charming, character. Audiences get seduced into rooting for him at times.
It’s all part of a fascinating psychological portrait, and Richard may be his own best analyst. In his stunning and insightful opening monologue, Richard describes himself as “malformed” – Richard III has been tagged “the hunchback king” – and not built for peace and pleasure: “And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover…I am determined to prove a villain.”
He succeeds. It’s about as dark a heart as you can plumb, so you may be surprised by ASP’s choice to play the Machiavellian king: Steven Barkhimer, an actor better known for comic roles.
Walsh recognizes that Barkhimer may not be a classic choice for Richard, but he believes Barkhimer’s humor will actually be a significant asset in playing the twisted king.
“One of Steve’s strong suits is comedy,” says Walsh. “And there’s a lot of showman, or actor, in Richard III. He kind of delights in the (fiction and chaos) that he’s creating. In that respect, he’s a precursor to Iago. He’s gleeful about his misdeeds.”
The power of Richard’s salesmanship reveals itself early in the play when he attempts to woo Lady Anne, despite the fact that she knows he killed her husband. If you murder a woman’s spouse, it usually puts a crimp in any possible courtship with the widow, but Richard plays by his own set of rules.
It’s a tough scene to sell, especially as Lady Anne finds herself bending toward his outrageous proposal.
In rehearsals, Mara Sidmore (Lady Anne) has been struck – and moved – by Richard’s honesty in that scene.
“The man standing in front of her is owning the truth, and that elicits a certain amount of sympathy,” says Walsh.
If Anne is swayed by Richard, then it’s also a sign of the times.
“Her husband is gone,” says Walsh. “Her dynamics have changed. For a woman in this time period, she’s now on her own.”
Not only is Walsh sorting through the complex psychologies and histories of the play, he’s staging the sprawling story with sparse resources. It’s conceivable that you could use 60 actors to play all the roles in “Richard III,” but Walsh is tackling the job with “a wonderfully snug” cast of six.
“I’ve always been fascinated with staging Shakespeare with a small group of actors and no big trappings of wigs and costumes,” he says. “I thought ASP did a great job of that with ‘Cymbeline.’ That show had a wonderful sense of economy.”
He’s also happy with the show’s home at the Swedenborg Chapel.
“It’s a gothic little chapel, quite intimate,” he says. “It will bring the audience into the show. And it speaks to the play. It’s the perfect little envelope for ‘Richard.’”
Audiences at the chapel may not have a religious experience, but they’re likely to have a political one.
“We’re all feeling hamstrung,” says Walsh, echoing the sentiments of those who are frustrated by the direction of the country. “How do we alter the way the world thinks of us? What can we do? Is there a lesson in ‘Richard III”? Will we be inspired to take some kind of action?”
Actors’ Shakespeare Project presents “Richard III” Feb. 7 to March 11 at the Swedenborg Chapel, in Cambridge. Visit actorsshakespeareproject.org.