Pocket Play Review: GreenStage gives us a killer Richard III with Shakespeare in the park

Author Julie Hammonds is on a quest to complete Shakespeare’s canon in calendar year 2025. In these pocket play reviews, she records brief impressions of each show she sees.

• The Play: Richard III (“A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”)
• The Company: GreenStage Shakespeare in the Park (Seattle, Washington)
• The Stage: a grassy field surrounded by conifers in Lincoln Park, on the western edge of Seattle
• Run Dates: July 20 to August 16, 2025, in various parks around town
• Memorable for: The ghostly figures that emerge from the trees at dusk to haunt the evil-doing Richard
• The Believable Chameleon Award goes to actor Malia Wessel, who adroitly played Clarence, Gray, Prince Edward, and Richmond

Pocket Play Review:

“An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.” (Richard, Act 4 Scene 4)

A theater company doesn’t make it to a 37th performance season without a winning formula. The formula at GreenStage seems to be “keep it simple.”

Each summer, GreenStage performs for free in more than 20 parks around Seattle. “Our shows are focused on the text, story, and character relationships in Shakespeare’s plays, with a goal of making the plays fun and easy to understand.”

I saw Richard III on July 18 in Lincoln Park. My oldest friend and I followed a winding dirt path from the parking lot to the performance space, a grassy field encircled by sky-scraping conifers. A friendly greeter suggested setting our picnic blanket in the front row.

We ate, feeling we had escaped normal life. The audience gathered, some on blankets and others on low camp chairs. Eventually, the crowd reached roughly 90 people.

The performance and audiences spaces were separated by a row of low, box lights. No platform stage lifted the actors above us. For stage furniture, there was one gray “throne” and two gray boxes (painted to look like stone walls). Minimalist to the extreme!

The distance between actors and audience is perhaps a dozen feet, which in another play could build the audience’s empathy for the characters. There wasn’t much chance of that with Richard III. By the end of Richard’s first speech, we know he’s an evil person, plotting against his family for personal gain.

We might then naturally side with his enemies. But all the characters scheme for power for themselves and their factions, and plot to destroy anyone in their way. It’s difficult to know whom to root for.

The most sympathetic characters are the women, all queens or former queens, all mothers. It was thrilling to watch such strong female characters in a Shakespeare play. I was especially taken with Mary Murfin Bayley, whose Duchess of York would have wrung tears from a stone.

Given the outdoor performance space, GreenStage actors have to project strongly to be heard. Roles like these, infused with shouting and weeping, make the job easier.

Anthony Duckett gave a standout performance as Richard III. He tries to win us to his side, winking like a man who believes his wickedness is cute. It’s impossible. Richard starts killing people early on, and we can’t side with a murderer.

Still, it’s fun to watch. Duckett nimbly flips back and forth between enjoying his evil actions and pretending to be pious and humble. Richard fools some courtiers but not others, who try to warn their friends. But everyone has to learn about Richard the hard way. For most, that way leads to the grave.

At dusk, barred owls hooted from the tallest trees. Nightfall added to the spooky effect when Richard’s murdered ghosts appeared from the forest in flowing hooded coats like sheets of rain. Shakespeare in the park offers magical moments like these; once seen, never forgotten.

In sum: Played simply and with fierce energy, GreenStage’s Richard III is a fine way to pass a summer evening in a Seattle park.

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Wherever you are, there’s probably a Shakespeare festival going on nearby. July and August are the peak months for seeing shows outdoors in the United States and Canada. Go, find a play and take part in this grand tradition.