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Review: 'Richard III' comes to Westbury's Salten Center

BY STEVE PARKS | steve.parks@newsday.com

October 11, 2007

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Of all Shakespeare's historical dramas, "Richard III" is the least nuanced. Aside from his deformity, Richard hasn't much excuse for turning himself into a monstrous opportunist. What's more, his formative years are amply covered in the three-part "HenryVI" cycle, tracing the rebellion of Richard, Duke of York, against his cousin, the Lancastrian King Hank. No need for a back story in "Richard III," essentially part 4 of the Plantagenet cycle. The play runs 3 1/2 hours as it is.

To tackle such a royal beast is admirable, perhaps to the point of foolhardiness, for a modest troupe, aptly named A Small Company in America. Among the company's assets, however, is an actor who has seemed destined all his life to play this title role, once he achieved a certain ripeness of age.

Scott Jarvis, an accomplished dramatic artist with numerous classical credits, hides his right forearm, withered in life as well as on stage, beneath Richard's royal tunic, in the manner of Napoleon. So when he reveals his "arm like a withered sapling" in one of this production's rawest moments, it's no act. No amount of makeup, costume trickery, or humpback special effect can fully re-create physical defect.

Richard's monstrosity of character, however, is another matter. Jarvis creates a full-throated psychopath with ingratiating supplication chased by spittled snarls. Death to anyone - especially any blood relation - who stands between Richard and his quest for the crown.

The show's other chief asset is John F. Anderson, an actor's director who shows the good sense not to reach too far. He directs "Richard III" straight up, as a 15th century English period piece - no modern-dress affectation that might brook unintended comedy. Still, several of the cast's less sure-footed actors add nothing to the drama beyond filling britches or gowns (plausible pre-Elizabethan costumes by Susan Blake) and memorizing lines - with some struggling mightily just to do that.

Among those who accomplish more: Blake as deposed Queen Margaret (Richard murdered her husband and son); Anderson as the Archbishop of Canterbury, and as sickly King Edward IV, his crown resting over a dangling nightcap (he dies of natural causes); Morgan Hooper as soon-to-be beheaded Lord Hastings; Erica Kuciw as young Queen Elizabeth (whose two sons and a husband - Richard's nephews and brother - are murdered by him, and who saves her daughter's life by promising the girl's hand to him); Sara Traster as Lady Anne, who marries Richard knowing he murdered her husband and father-in-law, and Penelope Grover as the Duchess of York, who curses her womb for producing such a bloody monarch.

The anticlimactic battle scene - Richard's dream has already foretold his "my kingdom for a horse" doom - seems even more an anticlimax for its slow-motion fight choreography.

But getting to the battle has its moments, especially when Jarvis is on stage. Which is most of the time.

RICHARD III. By William Shakespeare. A Small Company in America, at the Salten Center, New York Institute of Technology, Northern Boulevard, Old Westbury, through Oct. 28. Tickets $16-$18, 516-686-7894. Seen Sunday.