Practitioner focus: Propeller Theatre

Since the 1990's, Edward Hall's Propeller Theatre has been taking a physical, radical and often outrageous approach to performing Shakespeare. Having won a vast array of awards over the last 30 thirty years, their productions are powerful, visceral and hard-hitting. Their work is a mix of rigorous text work and modern physical theatre. They have been influenced by mask work, animation, film and music from all ages.

Their production of Richard III epitomises Propeller's style perfectly. Directed by Edward Hall, as are all of their productions, he is not afraid to take risks. In an interview, Hall says that in Richard III he's done a few quite outrageous things that he's never done on a stage in twenty years. He's set the play in a gothic Victorian hospital, featuring evocative, bloody imagery in the style of the Grand Guignol. The interpretation swiftly changes from gallows humour to rage and madness in a blink of an eye. Every line spoken by the actors brings forth the bloodthirsty nature of the play. As one reviewer described it, this is not a Richard for the purists, but there's plenty of imagination on display here even if some of the poetry has been lost.