WILL O'HARE
Andrew Sellon stars The Curtain’s production of William Shakespeare’s “Richard III.”
The Curtain, Jersey City’s resident classical theater company, digs into the dark heart of power with William Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” now running at The Nimbus Arts Center. The stage is stripped bare — just a construct of wooden risers and mood-enhancing lighting — but there is no shortage of drama. Leading the charge is Andrew Sellon, a veteran stage actor (and, for fans of TV’s “Gotham,” a familiar villain), who turns The Bard’s notorious hunchback into a scheming charmer you can’t quite bring yourself to despise.
Director Sean Hagerty trims the three-hour epic into a series of crisp vignettes, letting the language breathe and the plot’s bloodshed land with weight. Sellon plays Richard as a scheming imp with a pronounced limp and withered arm, suffused with ambition and immorality. From the opening moments onward, he confides his crimes directly to the audience, like a politician justifying his next scandal. He slanders, murders and manipulates — and still manages to make you lean in when he breaks the fourth wall.
We may not like Richard or approve of his many crimes, but it is almost impossible to hate him.
Even if Elizabethan verse isn’t your comfort zone, The Curtain’s nimble cast and the theater’s admirable acoustics make it clear as day. Shakespeare’s tangled dialogue comes through cleanly, with enough swordplay and backstabbing to keep things moving. Nimbus’ black box setup brings the action practically into your lap; when swords clash a few feet away, you feel it.
Hagerty’s pared-down adaptation spares you the homework on English royalty. “Richard III” concluded the “Henry V” trilogy, and Shakespeare’s audiences were already familiar with the characters when it premiered. Here, the stakes stay personal, not historical, and you won’t need to dive through your Cliff Notes to follow the story or identify the characters.
WILL O'HARE
From left, Yair Ben-Dor, Brandon Jones and Gys De Villiers in “Richard III.”
Christiana Nelson gives Queen Elizabeth a fierce dignity even as her children fall to Richard’s schemes, while Brandon Jones makes a commanding Buckingham — a loyal lieutenant whose conscience eventually compels him to turn on his liege. And young Malin Glade’s turn as Prince Edward captures the royal brat’s entitlement with believable petulance.
By intermission, Richard’s got the crown; Act Two is devoted to his downfall. Achieving the power he craved only sharpens his paranoia. Sellon avoids bombast, playing the tyrant with chilling restraint — he’s a smiling villain, not a raving lunatic. It’s a subtle, eerie approach, as you watch his hold on the throne slipping.
Shakespeare’s tale of ambition curdling into madness doesn’t need its modern parallels spelled out, but it’s hard to miss them. More than 400 years later, we still watch the wealthy and privileged play the victim while burning down everything around them. “Richard III” doesn’t sermonize, but the mirror it holds up feels uncomfortably familiar.
Some lessons, it seems, we just keep relearning. Which is why Shakespeare remains so vital and relevant.
The Curtain will present “Richard III” at The Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City through March 29. Visit thecurtain.org.
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