This March — almost three years after a remarkable discovery in an old parking lot — the mortified bones of Richard III were interred at Leicester Cathedral. Benedict Cumberbatch, a distant relative of the House of York's final king, read his eulogy: "My bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil, a human Braille. My skull, scarred by a crown, emptied of history..." Considering the brevity of Richard's reign — two years, in contrast with Henry VIII's 38 or Elizabeth I's 45 — he remains one of Britain's most vivid monarchs, in no small part due to Shakespeare's rendering of the loquacious, self-aware anti-hero in Richard III. Whether true in its Machiavellian characterization or shaped by the Tudors' propaganda, Shakespeare's script has drawn the world's finest to the role: Laurence Olivier, Peter Dinklage, Ian Holm, Kevin Spacey, Alec Guinness, and, most notably, Ian McKellen with a chilling 1995 interpretation. Relative newcomer Aidan O'Reilly could not have chosen a better stage on which to tackle the "rudely stamp'd," "deformed, unfinish'd" hunchback. Surrounded by trees, the specially-built amphitheater is positioned to use the setting sun and full moon as a spotlight for the Marin Shakespeare Company.
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