Richard III

Deformed, cruel and corrupt. Shakespeare's Richard III kills everyone he believes can hinder his arrival and stay on the throne, regardless of whether they are family members. That is the story of envy, ambition and crime that the actress and director Jacqueline Roumeau wanted to stage in prison, with a cast of prisoners, but bureaucratic difficulties pushed her to modify the idea. Thus was born this project that brings professional actors on stage alongside a citizen cast. “Shakespeare combines the academic and the popular, his theater was for the people, so it must be demystified,” he says.

Richard III has seven non-professional actors. Most of them had already worked with Roumeau on other initiatives of CoArtRe, the Corporation of Artists for Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration that she directs. The protagonist is Ronald León, a non-professional actor in the process of social reintegration. Part of the Valdebenito family returns to acting after participating in the testimonial play Torre 5, about the fire at the San Miguel prison where their son and brother died.

"I am interested in putting on this work because it masterfully portrays the human soul and is very current. The work dialogues with the Chile we are living in. There is a very great paradox, in the work the kings and powerful people behave like criminals, that palace is a true prison and the same thing happens there that happens in the low and high worlds, in society itself," explains Roumeau.

Dramaturgy William Shakespeare
Company CoArtRe Theater
Director Jacqueline Roumeau
Assistant Director David Ibarra
General Producer Juan Torrejón Sanguinetti
Cast Vladimir Armijo, Cristian Hormazábal, Ronald León, Carlos Valdebenito, Manuela Martínez, Dania Valdebenito, Valentina Fuenzalida, Gabriel Suárez, Pablo Cancar, Macarena Prieto, Emilio Soza, Daniela Concha and Claudio Durán. 
Sound/music design Alejandro Miranda
Lighting designer Willy Ganga
Set and costume designer Jorge "Chino" González
Choreographies: Pamela Quero.
Holographs: Sebastián Escalona.
Credit photos: Juan Esteban Vega

Previous seasons

Richard III was part of the GAM 2016 Call in the Shakespeare line.  It premiered on March 31 of the same year and was in theaters until April 23.