Richard III (play)

Stand well clear, Jo!

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Richard III was a play by William Shakespeare featuring the eponymous King of England. Its depiction of Richard III's rise to power and short reign was fictionalised and highly unflattering, informed by the Tudor period in which it was written.

History

Origins

Shakespeare did not do any historical research when writing Richard III, instead using as his sole basis material which was decried by the Fifth Doctor as "that nonsense by Thomas More". (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)

16th century performances

First performance

The premiere night of the play was at the Rose theatre in London in 1592, specifically on the day of rival playwright Robert Greene's death. Shakespeare was supposed to appear in the title role and was the only member of the cast to have learnt Richard's lines.

Five minutes before the opening of the house, the TARDIS materialised backstage and the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler exited. They came from 21st century Leicester Square, where they had seen Greene go on a destructive jealousy-fuelled rampage under the influence of the Shadeys, in an attempt to prevent Greene from murdering Shakespeare during his early career. To give the Doctor a better chance of defeating the Shadeys, Rose distracted Shakespeare and got him away from the theatre by claiming Queen Elizabeth I was prepared to give him a royal audience at his home if he came immediately.

Outside the Rose, some of the cast noticed Shakespeare's absence and began to worry, not willing to disperse the crowds of people entering the theatre. They overheard the Doctor quoting one of Richard's lines and told him that he had to go on in Shakespeare's place, a role he eventually accepted.

Not long into the play, Rose and Shakespeare burst into the theatre with Greene and the Shadeys Bloodfinger and Woodscrape in hot pursuit. Their entrance caused the audience and cast to hurriedly flee from the stage and stands, with one audience member proclaiming "'Tis the pestilence!". Shakespeare was initially more concerned with the Doctor's unscheduled intrusion onto his stage, calling him a "dog" and reclaiming Richard's hump from the Doctor's back. Attention soon turned to the threat Greene posed to Earth, however. Although Shakespeare briefly put the planet in peril by provoking Greene, the situation was defused by the Doctor and Rose when they promised to remember him as "bigger than Shakespeare" should he choose to save the world. Greene then expelled the Shadeys' influence from his body, banishing them back to their dimension, and was returned to his rightful place in history, on his deathbed. (COMIC: A Groatsworth of Wit)

Other performances

The Fifth Doctor took Peri Brown and Erimem to what turned out to be a substandard performance of the play in 1597. Later while drinking with Shakespeare, the Doctor chastised him for not doing his research and presenting such a distorted account of the events of Richard's reign. Infuriated by the Doctor's insults and account of actual events which implicated the bloodline of his beloved Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare sneaked aboard the Doctor's TARDIS and travelled back to April 1483 in an attempt to influence actual events to more closely resemble his play. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)

References

The Sixth Doctor later paraphrased and then quoted, "My kingdom for a horse," from Act V, Scene IV of the play. (AUDIO: The Hollows of Time) The Tenth Doctor did likewise in Goritania in the 1780s. Donna Noble did not recognise the quotation. (AUDIO: Death and the Queen)