The Nature of Power in Looking for Richard & Richard III Brianna Rimmer 12th Grade

The nature of power within Looking for Richard both reflects that which is represented in Richard III and extends or alters it to be incorporated into a modern context, appropriate for a wider, contemporary audience. Richard III is a Shakespearian play set at the end of the War of the Roses, where a dramatic shift of power had just occurred, and the ascent of Richard to the throne had begun. Written in Elizabethan times, power is not only reflected historically and dramatically, but also socially and politically in terms of context, as Calvinism was the ideology accepted at the time. Looking for Richard, directed by Al Pacino and released in 1996, is a self-proclaimed ‘docu-drama’, aimed at introducing Shakespeare, specifically Richard III, into modern society and to make it relevant, significant and accessible some four hundred years after the play was written. Using scenes from the play and incorporating modern interpretations Pacino offers both Shakespeare’s representation of power, his own and that of society, to connect past to present and present new forms of power that is seen in today’s predominantly secular society.

Within both texts the power of the individual and their motives is focused on in relation to audience...