Together Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey are an artistic tour de force. This is not an observation, it is just plain fact. When they first worked together, the result was American Beauty- a film that won them each an Oscar for best director and actor and has gone down as an understated cinematic classic. Now, reunited for a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III, the pair are taking the West End stage by storm. Spacey’s performance in the title role is completely electrifying. From the moment he utters the play’s iconic opening lines, “Now is the winter of our discontent”, he tightly spins the audience into a brilliant Machiavellian web of deceit, greed and corruption. Alternating between cruel seduction, camp sarcasm and violent sadomasochism, Spacey’s usurping king is almost caricature, a despotic Gaddafi-in-the-making. Sure, he maybe shouts a bit too much and a bit too loudly (is his script written in capitals?), but I’m sure the real-life Richard did much the same. After all, he has just nicked the crown from his brother- who can blame him for such mercurial mood swings. The set visually plays with the mind, too. Multiple doors, receding perspectives, and ominously blank chambers create a nightmarish backdrop against which Spacey’s deformed villain grotesquely lurches- leg in braces and paper crown perched pathetically on his head. This is theatre at its very best, a gripping time warp that skilfully works video link, overhead projections and pinstriped suits into Shakespeare’s timeless tale of retribution. Yes, at over three hours long, Mendes’s play does feel noticeably long (when the curtain fell for the interval, I thought it was time to go home) but if you can get your hands on some elusive tickets, then I promise it is worth every bottom-numbing minute.
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