This is a very eloquent review, lol , but I am glad you enjoyed the experience.

 

Wow, you REALLY enojoyed the experience. But I would love to hear more about your impressions.

I´m home now again and I´m still feeling very happy and lucky to have been able to see this production. As I said before I´m one of the theatre goers who prefer modern stagings to pure classical productions and I thought the transfer into the 70´s was a very clever and thoughtful idea and gave the play a cold war/conspiracy/coup feeling which made it really gripping, thrilling and intense in my opinion. I sometimes felt like watching a John Le Carre novel meeting Pulp Fiction  and it had me on the edge of my seat and holding my breath for most of the play.
I also found it fascinating that they used the same stage design for the whole play, but it still felt different and new in the various scenes, with every change of the superb costumes it felt like they had changed the whole scenerie.
And I definitely loved Martin Freeman als Richard and thought he was terrific. I completely agree with Miriel68, he did portray Richard as a mean, devious, nastily sarcastic and sometimes even wittily grotesque, but immensely cruel psychpath, but he did it so, so well in my opinion. I also have to admit that I didn´t see much appeal in the seduction scene either, but even when I read the play before seeing it on stage I couldn´t comprehend why Lady Anne gave into Richard´s courting. But Richard´s scenes with Queen Elisabeth and the Duchess of York were absolutely brilliant, those were the scenes when I actually forgot I was watching a play and thought it was a real confrontation between brother/sister-in-law and mother and son, fiery, stirring and authentic.
There also was one very special moment for me in the play when Richard was killing Anne on a desk in a very long and disturbingly cruel scene, because in the scene while he was choking his wife to death Martin Freeman was staring right at (or probably more accurate) through me because I sat right in his view in the second row and the seat in front of me was free. It was such an intense and terrifing moment that I began feeling truly uncomfortable and anxious. I looked at my husband then and he felt as uncomfortable as I did because it was really like witnessing a true crime and a psychotic mass murder at work. But then for me it´s always the best theatre experience when it feels like watching a real scene with real people instead of actors and when I feel and live through all the emotions and sentiment showed on stage by myself.
After the show on our way to the bus station we saw some of the actors coming from a certain direction and we went there to have a look. There was a rather small waiting crowd and we decided to wait for a few minutes to see if Martin Freeman was coming out too. He did come out quickly and very patiently and politely signed all the papers the fans gave him. I thanked him for a terriific performance and he thanked me for complimenting him and we smiled at each other and it was a bit surreal, but all in all a rather unforgettable and unique experience and the one regret I have is that I didn´t bought tickets for two shows during our stay because I would love to see the play again and be able to pay attention to more details and finer nuances.
So now I hope I didn´t bore anybody to death with my long report, but I´m still in a very enthusiastic mood (even though my suitcase with the signed programme in it didn´t return to Germany with me and at the moment Lufthansa apparently doesn´t know where it is) and very happy to talk about this outstanding experience.
 

Hi Miriel68, thank you for asking, and yes, fortunately my suitcase (and the programme!) was found and is now safely back with me!!
I only have seen one other production of Richard III at a rather famous theatre in Germany (Schauspielhaus Bochum) with a rather well known actor who had done some theatre work but not Shakespeare and who is known for his film and television work mostly in comedies. They had chosen a more comedic, grotesque. psychotic approach to the play then too and it had worked quite well. But I have no rememberance of the seduction scene, so I guess I didn´t convince me then either. I haven´t seen the Ian McKellen movie yet and you´ve made me very curious now.
And of course I´m looking forward to see Benedict´s interpretation of the role, with the right styling he could seduce through his looks alone, but I guess this won´t be the intention in the BBC production.

Thank you, Miriel, for the youtube link, I definitely will watch it and if I like it I even might buy the film, Kristin Scott Thomas has almost already convinced me!