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| Alessandro Colla as Richard; Arash Mokhtar; Sheri Graubert |
This is a review of a unique experience that’s there for
your taking. It costs nothing, yet it is
of great value as some Shakespearean character might say if he found it, as I
did, in a parking lot. So overlooked but
so worth looking at over and over and over… like a precious gem turned over in
one’s hand.
On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in a municipal parking
lot on the corner of Broome and Ludlow, Richard III set about his treacherous
ascent to the throne once again. An
audience of more than 200 sat in the open air on white plastic chairs and
blankets, alternately charmed, amused and disgusted by his antics, but
entertained throughout for every one of the 145 minutes that the show runs.
Some stood draped over the metallic beasts that signal our
modern age – cars – after all, we were in a working parking lot – and some of
these beasts came and went driven by some motivation different than ours. We were staying put to see how this drama
would play out, reminded by our modern setting that the things that define an
age may change, but human interactions do not, and words that capture them with
such art outlast all change.
Alessandro Colla gives us a witty, devilish, energetic
Richard III. He is as immune to remorse
as Shakespeare wrote him, yet capable of assuming the attitude of the truest of
penitents when it serves his purposes, while feeling none of the emotions he so
aptly expresses. Colla embodies the
essential Richard, a man of action who never lets the residue of his last
action dampen his next one. His genius
is the degree to which he convinces others that the destruction he visited
yesterday will create a better tomorrow, even for the survivors of those he has
destroyed. Colla does all of this very
well.
Much has been made in the news recently that the historical
Richard III’s bones were found earlier this year under a parking lot. Over the last 20 years, Shakespeare in the
Parking Lot has given more than 50 productions of Shakespeare’s plays for more
than 40,000 at Broome and Ludlow, but it was with particular delight spurred by
the news that this production came about.
The audience can feel this.
Without reservation, you could say that Alessandro Colla’s performance
resurrects Richard III from the parking lot.
Sheri Graubert excels as Queen Margaret. She is the first of Richard’s victims, in
actions that take place just before the start of the play, the murder of her
husband, the king, and her son. This is
a performance so full of emotion and articulated outrage that it freezes you in
your seat. Ms. Graubert acts with her
entire body. Her movements and facial
expressions tell the story of what she has to say so well that we do not even
need the words, but the words coming out of her mouth increase the impact by
infinite orders of magnitude. She is
Richard’s accuser. She will neither bend
nor break. If Richard is reality, then
she is, in Ms. Graubert’s embodiment, a protest against the way things are –
primal, excruciatingly uncomfortable, compelling.
An overwhelming scene in Act IV calls to mind a famous
sculpture of three sorrowful women, except these women eloquently speak their
grief: Veronica Cruz as Queen Elizabeth;
Kristin Johansen as the Duchess of York; and Sheri Graubert as Queen Margaret
deliver a moving, passionate, searing display of emotion which you can read on
the faces of the audience as you look around, and then you remember you are in
a parking lot.
You have no excuse not to park yourself there.
Richard III runs through August 17, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday 8PM. It is directed by Hamilton
Clancy and performed by the Drilling Company.
www.drillingcompany.org. For more information, www.shakespeareintheparkinglot.com.
