Martin Freeman as Richard III

[tanzmaeusi]

Hello fellow Martin Freeman fans,

is anybody out there who saw Martin as Richard III on stage at Trafalgar studios in London and wants to discuss/share his opinion? I saw the play last week and thought it was terrific. And I would love to share my thoughts with other fans!

Comments

[tanzmaeusi]

We traveled from Germany to London, stayed for 5 days and Richard III has been the highlight of our trip. I´m one of the theatre goers who prefer modern stagings to pure classical productions and I thought the transfer into the 70´s was a very clever and thoughtful idea and gave the play a cold war/conspiracy/coup feeling which made it really gripping, thrilling and intense in my opinion. I sometimes felt like watching a John Le Carre novel meeting Pulp Fiction and it had me on the edge of my seat and holding my breath for most of the play.
I also found it fascinating that they used the same stage design for the whole play, but it still felt different and new in the various scenes, with every change of the superb costumes it felt like they had changed the whole scenerie.
And I definitely loved Martin Freeman als Richard and thought he was terrific. I´m a relatively new fan of Martin Freeman and I had seen him only in one other role besides Dr. Watson, in Love actually. And to be honest I didn´t know what to expect with him playing Richard III, maybe the badest villain in theatre hostory. But he really blew me away with his performance, in my opinion he portrayed Richard as a mean, devious, nastily sarcastic and sometimes even wittily grotesque, but immensely cruel psychpath, and he did it so, so well in my opinion. I also have to admit that I didn´t see much appeal in the seduction scene with Lady Anne, but even when I read the play before seeing it on stage I couldn´t comprehend why Lady Anne gave into Richard´s courting. But Richard´s scenes with Queen Elisabeth and the Duchess of York were absolutely brilliant, those were the scenes when I actually forgot I was watching a play and thought it was a real confrontation between brother/sister-in-law and mother and son, fiery, stirring and authentic.
There also was one very special moment for me in the play when Richard was killing Anne on a desk in a very long and disturbingly cruel scene, because in the scene while he was choking his wife to death Martin Freeman was staring right at (or probably more accurate) through me because I sat right in his view in the second row and the seat in front of me was free. It was such an intense and terrifing moment that I began feeling truly uncomfortable and anxious. I looked at my husband then and he felt as uncomfortable as I did because it was really like witnessing a true crime and a psychotic mass murder at work. But then for me it´s always the best theatre experience when it feels like watching a real scene with real people instead of actors and when I feel and live through all the emotions and sentiment showed on stage by myself.
After the show on our way to the bus station we saw some of the actors coming from a certain direction and we went there to have a look. There was a rather small waiting crowd and we decided to wait for a few minutes to see if Martin Freeman was coming out too. He did come out quickly and very patiently and politely signed all the papers the fans gave him. I thanked him for a terriific performance and he thanked me for complimenting him and we smiled at each other and it was a bit surreal, but all in all a rather unforgettable and unique experience and the one regret I have is that I didn´t bought tickets for two shows during our stay because I would have loved to see the play again and be able to pay attention to more details and finer nuances.
So now I hope I didn´t bore anybody to death with my long report, but I´m still in a very enthusiastic mood and very happy to talk about this outstanding experience.

[cookiefleck]

Hi - finally found some time to share this with you. My tumblr name is makeminemod but I don't post fannish stuff there, so someone else posted this for me on tumblr back in July, after my trip.

Warning for slight Richard III spoilers. I recently journeyed from Hollywood, California, with my friend and my daughter, for a week in London that included seeing Richard III at Trafalgar Studios. We were Row A center on July 16, and Row C center the following night. Am glad to be able to say that the show exceeded our high expectations, and what a treat it was to observe and enjoy Martin Freeman's superb acting up close. As edited and directed by Jamie Lloyd, it's a fast-paced, action-packed adaptation... with Richard doing a slow build from sly manipulator to ruthless murderer as the show progresses. And the humor... there are many laugh-out-loud moments, perfectly timed... although by play's end, no one is laughing. Martin Freeman is known for giving different deliveries for each take or performance, and that held true for this production. Some lines were delivered by him from different parts of the stage than the night before. And, for example, the famous "a horse, a horse" line was played entirely for laughs the first night (he squeaked it out in a high-pitched voice), and more traditionally the second night. His changes in delivery and/or position seemed carefully done so as not to throw off the other actors. By staging the murders onstage, Lloyd really brings home just how ugly and vicious was Richard's rise to the top (and attempt to stay there)... the dead die horribly, and bodies were laying inches from our feet in the front row. Richard, despite his withered arm and hump back, initially lets others do his dirty work for him, but later proves to be a savage fighter, leaping over furniture (gasps from the audience), and killing mercilessly with his bare hands. It was riveting... and exhausting! One of the evenings, we met Martin later at the stage door, and he was very polite and soft-spoken, interacting with everyone before leaving in his private car.

[cookiefleck]

I just remembered that after I wrote that, I realized I should have said he kills mercilessly with his bare hand, not hands, ha ha.

[tanzmaeusi]

Thank you so much for sharing your great and very eloquent review. I envy you for having seen the play twice and being able to notice the differences between the two performances, I really wished I could have seen the play at least twice too. But then I´m glad I was able to see it at all, it has definitely been the hightlight of 2014 so far.
Are you going to see Benedict cumberbatch as Hamlet next year too?

[cookiefleck]

We felt we really needed to see it twice if we were going to all that effort to go :) plus we wanted to see Martin do different takes as we'd heard he does for filming TV and film. And from what I have read, every night is a bit different. It was truly a great night of theatre and I hope they film it (have tweeted Jamie Lloyd to add my voice to the chorus asking for that.. there is also a petition circulating on tumblr). It was not only an exciting show, but a truly unique take on RIII that will stand alone in that regard for some time, I suspect. We (you and I) are very lucky to have seen it. We were not sure if the first row was a good idea before we went (worried about the blood splatters, etc.) but it was a great decision... we were just inches from Martin at times and being able to see him acting at such close range was amazing.

There are a lot of fan reviews (and photos of stage door autographing and such) posted on the tumblr Martin Freeman tag if you want to read more. Some are very touching, and it's fascinating how many people have traveled from all over the world. On the two nights we went, we met a mother and daughter who were there from South Korea.

There was an article posted online a few days ago (I think The Mirror UK but not sure) saying that something like 55% of the audience has been first-time theatregoers. That was one of their goals (to incite people to see Shakespeare who had never seen it before, and to make it exciting for them) and I think they met that goal ably.

I am not enough of a Benedict Cumberbatch fan to care if I see him or not in Hamlet, so I am not planning to go for that. However, the same friend (also from California) with whom I saw RIII (and my daughter also went with us) has already bought her Hamlet tickets. Are you going?

A few years ago my friend and I went to London for a week and while there attended the first BFI event where they showed an episode before it aired (it was the first episode of Season 2, w/Irene Adler), with a Q&A. Benedict Cumberbatch was there and we met him briefly (ditto Mark Gatiss, Andrew Scott, Louise Brealey). Unfortunately, Martin was not at that event because he was in New Zealand filming The Hobbit. But meeting them is not that big a deal to me... for RIII it was really all about seeing the performance.

p.s. A few years ago, for two weeks I stayed with friends who live in the village of Grünberg. Do you know that area? They took me all over to see wonderful sights... a Rhine cruise, Heidelberg, and much more (a different place every day). I had a wonderful time.

[tanzmaeusi]

I have never been to Grünberg, but it´s not too far away from where I live, about an one hour drive. I´m living in Mainz which is situated at the river Rhine and near Frankfurt. When we have guests from another country we always do a Rhine cruise with them too and I still do enjoy it every time.

I also read the article about the high percentage of first-time theatregoers in Richard III and I was quite surprised about that fact. In our performance there had been a lot of middle aged couples like my husband and me, a lot of families and not too many young people and not significantly more women. But maybe it has been a rather untypical audience this evening, because there also hadn´t been too many people waiting at the stage door. I saw some other Germans in the audience again who had also been at Speedy´s in the afternoon, and some other Germans were waiting at the stage door with me. I guess there really had been a lot of people traveling to London to see this play. Having been a true fan of the BBC series Sherlock only since May this year I didn´t realise how popular Martin Freeman is around the world and I´m really happy that the play had been such a success for him, even though he said it had been rather strenuous and demanding.
I find it kind of refreshing that you are not enough of a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch to go see him as Hamlet, because I always have the feeling that he is so much more popular than Martin Freeman and that makes me sad because I absolutely like them equally. I think they are both excellent actors, both interesting, intelligent men and they have a wonderful and unique chemistry on screen and one would´t work so well without the other. But when I joined a Sherlock fanforum 4 months ago I was surprised to see that most of the members are gushing and swooning over Benedict, raving about every new picture, every new project, every new interview, but nobody is really interested in Martin´s interviews, projects etc. Only 3 members so far have seen Richard III, but at least 50 people have already tickets for Hamlet. I have tickets for Hamlet myself and I´m definitely looking forward to it, but I always feel a little unhappy when Martin is somehow neglected. And just today there were some photos of Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III for the BBC´s Hollow Crown series and I thought that Martin looked so much better in that role, much more convincing, interesting and menacing.
And concerning new projects, have you any news on Martin´s new film project "American Hangman"? Do you know what kind of role he will have in this film?
Oh wow, this is a really long post, I hope you don´t mind, but I´m just so happy to have found another person who wants to talk about the brilliant Martin Freeman!!

[cookiefleck]

I don't have any news about American Hangman. It sounds like a good vehicle, though, so I am looking forward to it. I can't remember any details now (and there are not many out there) but I think it's sort of a tense thriller with mainly the two leads in virtually every scene... can't remember more than that.

I can take or leave BC. He's a good actor and of course I like him in Sherlock. But I have no special interest in him. I subscribe to tumblr blogs that focus on MF, although some BC creeps in there, too. Did you listen to the funny BBC radio show skits about BC getting involved in all of MF's projects? Can send links to you.

I can send you my email and we can talk further there if you want...

Just read a really nice, detailed new review of RIII on tumblr and can send it to you.