Now is the winter of our discontent

Richard III is currently running at Trafalgar Studios with Martin Freeman as the eponymous lead. I was fortunate enough to find this out very early on, and booked a ticket with amazing stage seats. What followed was a phenomenal production that is every bit as bloody, humorous, and psychotic as the posters lining the tube station walls purport. 

For the adaptation, the director decided it would be clever to have it set in Britain's Winter of Discontent in 1979 - the worst since the Second World War ended. Set up as a marvelous military coup, Freeman does an excellent job of portraying Richard III as a madman drunk on power. The rest of the cast was just as spectacular. I was close enough to everyone that I was able to watch their facial expressions, which often get missed in the grand circle seats at the theatre. When King Edward finds out Clarence has been killed, he is launched into a rage, and the actor's face was so red as he screamed at the assembled council, before being dragged off stage hacking. It was incredible. Everyone did such an amazing job portraying these classic roles.

Bonus: 

Lady Anne and Gloucester (soon to be Richard III) are having an argument and she calls him a hedgehog.

Joke of the Day:

Why did the chicken cross the playground?

To get to the other slide.