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500 Years of Looking for Richard III, with Jeffrey Wilson '12 and Thomas Varga '17

Kirk Davis Jr. Annual Shakespeare Lecture
A UCI Authors event
featuring UCI PhD Jeffrey Wilson '12 (Harvard University) and actor Thomas Varga '17

Disabled King of England, charismatic Shakespearean villain, star of the first play produced by an African-American theater company, Freudian case study, skeleton under a parking lot, inspiration for House of Cards, compared to Donald Trump in the New York Times—Richard III is reinvented for every new cultural moment.


While steeped in details of medieval English history, Shakespeare’s Richard III and its configuration of disability, villainy, and tragedy still speak to us in the twenty-first century with a surprising urgency. How is Richard III always so historical and so current?


Jeffrey R. Wilson tells the story of Richard III’s body traveling through time into Shakespeare’s hands, on down to today. From Richard’s own manuscripts, x-rays of sixteenth-century paintings, and Shakespeare’s soliloquies to eighteenth-century editorial notes, nineteenth-century theatrical costumes, and twenty-first century disability theater, an interpretation of Richard’s body is never just an interpretation of Richard’s body. When we interpret Richard III, he interprets us in return. New Swan actor Thomas Varga will share speeches by Shakespeare's Richard.

For more information visit:
https://campusgroups.uci.edu/Illuminations/rsvp_boot?id=1925957

Jan 30, 2023 04:00 PM in Pacific Time (US and Canada)