This was my first ever English Shakespearean history play, and I’m happy to say I quite enjoyed it! Richard’s internal dialog alone carries the play throughout, and the addition of the cursing Margaret is the cherry on top. The rest of the characters were fairly forgettable though, which was a problem since there are quiet a few other characters, and they all seem to want you to remember who they are when they inevitably enter stage left and begin talking politics. I think that may just be the nature of history plays though, and that if I was watching a performance on stage, then costuming would do most of the memory work for me.
I had to give a presentation on disability in this text for my Shakespearean Histories class, and doing so made me realize that I am very unaccustomed to seeing disabled or disfigured characters in literature. I should be on the lookout for such appearances in the future, and should remember to consider the significance of each instance.