(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The Royal Shakespeare Company recently announced that it will only cast disabled actors to play King Richard in Richard III, according to PolitiChicks.
However, the woke decision by one of the foremost contemporary theater companies associated with William Shakepeare’s work has some marveling at an ironic twist befitting of the Bard himself, since the treacherous part—while substantial—is not considered to be a flattering or heroic one.
In the play—a “history” that functioned as Elizabethan propaganda to explain how the Tudor line came to occupy the British throne—the malevolent, power-hungry Richard’s hunchback (which historians believe was, in fact, scoliosis) makes him appear villainous.
The bitterness he feels about his physical deformity is a motivation in his conspiracy to steal the throne from his older brother, King Edward IV.
Richard eventually gains the thrown by manipulating and murdering his brothers and several other nobleman. He retains the throne by killing his two nephews, as well as his own wife, whom he murders in order to marry his niece.
It is unclear if the new social justice lilt added by the Royal Shakespeare Society indicates a shift in the story’s sympathies for Richard’s character, just over a decade since the actual Richard’s remains were unearthed in a parking lot in Leicester, fueling a flurry of new scholarship.
A BBC article referred to Richard as an “anti-hero” after RSC first cast 30-year-old Arthur Hughes, who has no thumb or radius bone in his right arm and identifies as “limb different,” to portray Richard in their 2022 production of the play.
“We need to have more disabled Richards. This is a big gesture from the RSC… taking disability representation seriously,” Hughes said.
“Richard is one of the most famous disabled characters in the English language. I’ve always wanted to play him,” he continued. “I think a lot of disabled actors will think playing Richard is their birthright. Every time a disabled actor plays Richard, it’s an important step for representation.”
Some speculate that the new show will use Richard’s downfall as a platform for activists to comment on the oppression disabled people face in modern society.
Ironically, the play posed questions of moral limits on power—a concept that leftists seem unwilling, or unable, to contemplate as they continue to tamper with elections, censor their opposition, and use physical and legal force and intimidation to achieve their own ends.
