Dare to gaze at the Gorgon.
Be astounded by dense, disturbing writing.
Confront the monster with the deformed soul and the diabolical designs.

Richard III, the last part of a Shakespearian tetralogy, tells the story of the extremely rapid ascension – and equally spectacular fall – of the Duke of Gloucester. Deceitful, a liar and a traitor, the deformed ruler’s goal is to seize the crown of England.

I that am rudely stamped, and want Love’s majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable,
The dogs bark at me as I halt by them –

I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

By fomenting latent discord, by using Machiavellian stratagems – the fruit of his diabolical intelligence – the tyrant coldly eliminates his adversaries to satisfy his thirst for destruction and domination. Now the playground for his cruelty, the court is in a state of collapse as it submits to his resistible ascension.

Known as a historical tragedy, the play covers a wide register, from the epic to the absurd by way of the grotesque. Brecht, Seneca, Ionesco… Shakespeare is all this and more. By squinting our eyes a bit, we can even see in his work Goya’s Saturn Devouring his Son, as well as some paintings by Bacon. A fertile bastardy has spawned a rich, diverse source of theatricality.

With the complicity of a flamboyant team (Sébastien Ricard plays the lame king and is accompanied by some twenty impressive actors, including Marc Béland, Sylvie Drapeau and Monique Miller), Brigitte Haentjens subtly evokes the complexity of a tormented character whose only refuge is evil and perversity.