German theater director seeks to expose every human being's evil side in 'Richard III'

By Park Boram

SEOUL, June 14 (Yonhap) -- "Richard III," directed by Thomas Ostermeier and based on Shakespeare's original play, has drawn starkly contrasting reviews since it premiered in Germany in 2015.

Some critics have found it amazing for its modern portrayal of the Shakespeare character and last king of England's Plantagenet dynasty, with onstage use of nudity, rock music and electric gadgets, while some others criticized it for leaving the original play's contemporary political implications behind.

The play starring German actor Lars Eidinger will go onstage in South Korea this week to become the fourth production staged here by the highly acclaimed German theater director.

Ostermeier said during a press conference here on Thursday to promote the work that it focuses on the monarch's side as an entertainer.

"The first idea when people hear about 'Richard III,' is 'Oh, it's a villain, a play about evil, tyrant and dictator and how he comes to power,'" he said. "I think it's true. But my focus is more about the entertainer Richard III as an evil clown who is taking the audience along. So what I am trying to achieve is that the audience likes Richard III."

Ostermeier has so far staged three of his productions here, including the latest one, Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People," in 2012.

"(I want to make) the audience seduced to carry out all these evil actions, and they are becoming like an accomplice of Richard III's actions, and they are seduced once in a lifetime with this performance to be thrilled to do all these dirty bloody evil things."

The famous medieval Shakespeare play incarnated the English king who came to power through a coup d'etat as a blood-thirst hunchback king and the most villainous theatrical character.

"The idea behind (my production) is that what Richard III carries out is an action that's actually something which has possibilities in all of us. I wasn't trying to say this is evil and bad. But the idea is more to seduce the audience to find the place inside themselves where they are also able to do what Richard III does," the director noted. "I think it's shocking to feel how you like what he does."

The story of the short-lived king, who fought his destiny as a disprivileged hunchback placed third in line for the throne, has a quality of resonating with the modern audience, he said.

"Every once in a while, we all know this feeling that we feel betrayed because we are not in this social hierarchy where we think we should be and that this can create a moment of, 'Ok, I am revolting against this. I am leaving everything behind and I am just thinking only of myself.'"

"Probably in Korea it's another situation because your culture is built on modesty and social interaction, but in other parts of the world this is depressingly true."

"I hope that we provide the Korean audience with different readings (of Richard III) than other shows. I am sure that there are major differences in this reading and staging of this Richard III," he said mindful of the staging of two other Richard III productions in South Korea this year.

For the Korean performance, Ostermeier is adopting the model of the Shakespeare-era Globe Theatre in London, as he has done in Germany and many other countries where he has staged "Richard III."

His theater, Schaubuhne, reproduced the architecture of the original Globe Theatre in Berlin for the staging of Richard III, where the audience is sitting in a half circle around the stage as their medieval counterparts had done in Shakespeare's era.

"(In Seoul) we are not going this far. We have two galleries, so we have a very intimate space where the audience is part of the action," he said. "The idea behind it is that we wanted him (the main actor) communicating (to) the audience like talking to a friend."

He also placed the Korean subtitles of the German language play in the middle of the stage set "so that the audience can follow easily both the Korean translation and the German language action onstage."

The two-and-a-half-hour show runs daily from Thursday to Sunday at LG Arts Center in southern Seoul.

pbr@yna.co.kr
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