DID YOU KNOW?
That Shakepeare coined over 1700 words and phrases?
Indeed, the great Bard seemed to have an imagination like no other. In his plays and sonnets numerous words and phrases make their first appearance on print.
We have him to thank for expressions such as 'heart of gold', 'a murder most foul' and 'it's greek to me'. It seems that even back in the day Shakespeare's plays where difficult to understand for the audience.
Within the theatrical arts, there are several unassailable truths. If there is a gun on stage, it MUST be fired before the play ends. Anybody saying “To be or not to be” while holding a skull MUST be booed and then corrected. And finally, everybody LOVES a good villain. Knowing this, Shakespeare decided, as he was wont to do, to one-up the rest of the theater world by writing a villain for the ages. A villain so twisted, both figuratively and literally, that when he tells you of his plans, be it to kill a couple of kids or woo a grieving widow, you find yourself utterly enthralled by the brilliance of his devilry. This is Richard III.
At the beginning of “Richard III” a long civil war between the royal families of York and Lancaster has ended with King Edward IV of the house of York wearing the English crown. Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Edward’s youngest brother. Richard is limp, hunched and bitter at his condition, but also possessed of both a keen intellect and a vicious hunger for power. Deciding to use his gifts to be revenged on the world for his curses, Richard starts to cut a bloody path through the English court in order to move up in the line of succession. This involves courting the young Lady Anne, despite the slight problem of Richard being the man who killed both her husband and her father-in-law. Richard also needs to rid himself of his brothers, King Edward and the Duke of Clarence, and of course, there is the small matter of King Edward’s sons.
Expect to see intrigue, murder, limping and a deadly lack of horses in this year’s Aalborg University Shakespeare Company production.
DIRECTOR: VANJA VUKOTIC
Vanja has been an active member of AaUSC for the last three years, and has made a speciallity of playing some of Shakespeare's more passionate women, such as the dreadful harpy Phebe in "As You Like It" and the lovesick leading not-quite-yet-a-lady Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet".
DIRECTOR: MARIA DONNERBORG
Maria has been part of the AaUSC since 2014, and in the span of three years, she has moved from a quiet but thieving handmaiden in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" to the plain country girl Audrey in "As You Like It" to one of the Bard's most loquacious women, Nurse, in "Romeo and Juliet".