Itay Tiran | Richard III
- Ifat Nesher
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Richard III
by William Shakespeare
21, 22, 23 | 05 | 2025
Itay Tiran's staging of Shakespeare's royal drama is an unsparingly critical reflection on the political present day in his home country of Israel. It is a touching play about a national tragedy in which the personal is irretrievably bound up with the political.
Itay Tiran's Richard III is an unsparingly critical reflection on the political present day in his home country of Israel. It is a touching play about a national tragedy in which the personal is irretrievably bound up with the political. The extraordinary actor Evgenia Dodina plays Richard as an inwardly offended villain who stops at nothing on his way to the throne and who is more focused on maintaining his power than on defending his country. Tiran does not add a single new line of spoken text to Shakespeare's play. But he does let his ensemble sing songs that are connected to key moments in the history of Israel: lyrical songs in bloodied atmosphere that are about liberation, peace and patriotism. For the Israeli-Jewish star actor and director, this production of Shakespeare's famous royal drama was the first work in his home country after he had left it for Europe five years before. The premiere in Jaffa took place one month before the massacre on 7 October 2023. Since then, the hotly debated staging has been considered prophetic.
direction Itay Tiran
translation Hebrew, Soundtrack Dori Parnes
stage design Eran Atzmon
costumes Judith Aharon
lighting design Gleb Filshtinsky
movement direction Renana Raz
sound design Michael Vaisburd
musical production Amit Poznansky
video Victor Sorokin
with
Evgenia Dodina (Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III)
Doron Tavori (King Edward IV, brother to Richard / Duchess of York, mother of Richard, Edward, and Clarence)
Israel (Sasha) Demidov (George, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward and Richard / Lord Stanley)
Gilad Kletter (Duke of Buckingham)
Michal Weinberg (Queen Elizabeth, Edward’s wife)
Lena Fraifeld (Lady Anne, widow of Edward, son to the late King Henry VI; later wife to Richard)
Alexander Senderovich (Lord Hastings / Lord Mayor of London)
Paulo E. Moura (Sir William Catesby)
Eli Menashe (Sir Robert Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower in London)
Noam Tal (Earl Rivers, brother to Queen Elizabeth / Prince Edward)
Shir Sayag (Lord Grey, son of Queen Elizabeth by her former marriage / Duke of York (the son)
Shlomi Bertonov (Murderer)
Maxim Rosenberg (The Bishop of Ely)
Production Gesher Theatre (Tel-Aviv)
