Shakespeare’s Richard III has always been popular with actors and audiences. Richard Burbage and David Garrick scored a huge success. So did Edmund Kean. The role was a major turning point in Laurence Olivier’s career. The best Richards of our times have been Ian McKellen on film and the Russian actor Ramaz Chkhikvadze on stage.
Rupert Goold’s production at Almeida Theatre opens with an unnecessary conceit: a prologue in Leicester Council’s car park where Richard’s skeleton (with a misshapen spine) was found in 2012.
