Richard III is Shakespeare's first villain, and he invites the audience to follow him on his journey to become the most powerful man in England. The final work in a series depicting his country's civil war, this play portrays a cripple in a world not only corrupt and power-hungry but also believing outward deformity exposes a monstrous inner nature. Belief becomes destiny as he determines to brazenly seize the crown, a hypocrite hacking his way through anyone in his path, guilty and innocent alike. But the conscience he initially mocks erupts on the night before his final battle to haunt him through the ghosts of those he's killed. Richard finally begins to come to grips with his own heart of darkness as Providence empowers a warrior to overcome his evil reign at last.
Set in contemporary times, the play reveals the seduction and tyranny of political violence whose perpetrators sow the seeds of their own destruction