Richard III redux OR Sara Beer [is/not] Richard III

Creation Kaite O’Reilly and Phillip Zarrilli

The accessible performing arts festival. Because it's only theatre if it's for everybody

Richard III: The bogeyman. Villain. The misunderstood


Is it him? And what if he is her? What would happen if the horrible, deformed, lame, crippled and hunchbacked Richard III was portrayed by someone fun, feminine, feminist, and with scoliosis? Is it time to claim the King? How might the story, the body, the performance and the character change when it is explored by a disabled actress with an aversion to horses? Will Richard III be up to it?


In Richard III Redux or Sara Beer [is / not] Richard III, Sara Beer takes on the King and the previous able-bodied actors who have played him: Olivier, McKellan, Pacino, Sher and Eidinger. Accompanied by filmmaker Paul Whittaker, the actress explores the character and reflects through different interpretations, stories, videos and live screenings on how Richard III has been performed so far.


Written and directed by the award-winning Irish playwright Kaite O'Reilly and co-directed by Phillip Zarrilli, the play imbues Shakespeare’s story with an ingenious, feminist and alternative perspective on disability.

The production has been nominated for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2019.

• If you come to the Simbiotic Festival and use some measure of accessibility, you can inform it in the personal area.
• Access por people with reduced mobility signposted in the 146th of Padilla street.