Riccardo III - Paolo Panaro

What are people willing to do in order to gain absolute power? And once they have obtained it, what is it good for if not to satisfy our most childish and capricious desires? Among Shakespeare's works, Richard III is the most clear-sighted and sharp representation of Machiavellian thought and the cynicism of power. The play is a whirlwind of events, a carousel of characters in which the crown passes from one head to another. Victims, accomplices, and murderers all come together to create a fresco of a ruling class consumed solely by a thirst for power, destined to witness the triumph of the most perverse of dictators, the most wicked villain in England's history, the deformed Richard of York. The dark ages of the medieval period are about to end, and in England, torn apart by years of civil war, peace has just returned. The War of the Roses has affirmed the final victory of the Yorks over the Lancasters. Edward is now the new king of England, and everyone wishes for a long and productive period of prosperity and tranquility; but nothing is more dangerous than peace: beneath the ashes, the fire smolders. Richard, Duke of Gloucester and brother of the king, despite having played a fundamental role in the York victory, has been unjustly excluded from power. His resentment towards his brother, as well as his desire for revenge against the other Yorks, is deep and boundless. Now, his secret goal is to become the king of England at any cost. To achieve his aim, Richard will lie, flatter, and kill. He lies to everyone except the audience, openly declaring from the very beginning his evil plan in an attempt to make them his accomplices. Richard is ambitious, perverse, wrathful, manipulative, yet he is also one of the most seductive and fascinating characters in the history of world theater. Or perhaps Richard is simply a sick man who no longer wants to continue suffering and who asks for nothing more than to be freed, once and for all, from that deformed body that has tormented him since birth.
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