By Virginia Schneider
Los Angeles, CA, (The Hollywood Times), 2/24/26 – Pounding rock music, moody sets and a flawless cast take the audience on a crashing freight train of a murderous ride in A Noise Within’s production of Richard III.
One of the many touches Director Guillermo Cienfuegos has made is finding raucous humor in Richard by casting the amazing Ann Noble in the title role. Noble mines humor in most every line, a feat seldom achieved with Richard. No matter how wicked he is, he’s also wickedly funny. Noble immediately has the audience in the palm of her hand with her rapid-fire vindictiveness, mocking others’ stupidity, cackling at her own superiority, so tickled with herself we laugh along, drinking her poison like every character who buys into her tricks.
Trisha Miller executes one of the best Queen Margaret’s, with her clean and mean curses hurling each one with the strength of Atlas and an archer’s aim. Another wonderful touch of Cienfuegos’ has Margaret drifting in and out of scenes like a will-o-the-wisp, building tension throughout the play. These appearances of Margaret’s weave a soft eerie touch, unseen but deeply felt by both characters and audience.
Never have two murderers been so funny as Wes Guimaraes and Alex Neher, again duping us into laughter then stunning us with their callous turnabout, adding to the bloody body count as they carry out Richard’s heinous climb to power. That’s one of Cienfuegos and his actors’ greatest skills—opening our mouths with laughter before they stun us with yet another terrible deed. Randolph Thompson finds power in stillness as first Clarence then the hip Catesby with a Shaft vibe. The entire cast is seamless, effortless, with the precision timing of dancers.
The production team of ANW, the kings and queens of simplicity, clarity and creativity including, Angela Balogh Calin (scenic designer), Ken Booth (lighting designer) and Chris Mascatiello (sound design) make excellent use of their sparce London-punk industrial set with scaffolding transforming into twin towers, flashing red lights announcing each new murder and a pounding score and sound effects building to terrifying madness. Nick Santiago demonstrates the magic of theatre with his projection designs. These creatives don’t create a ‘set’ so much as a sensory experience. We feel this play in our bones.
and Wesley Guimarães
(Photo by Craig Schwartz)
Cienfuegoes has made us all children in the school yard and Richard is the cool kid—smart, snarky, confident and cruel. We gullible kids find ourselves laughing, caught up in the machinations of Kid Cool, realizing too late– as all the characters eventually do—Richard has tricked us into being the executioners of his game. This ageless manipulation is the story of how a society erects a corrupt leader, and still, we never learn. Want to understand how tyrants get into power, Shakespeare’s been telling us for centuries. See for yourself at A Noise Within. Running until March 8. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets start at $41.75 (including fees). Student tickets start at $20.
A Noise Within is located at 3352 E Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. Richard lll is recommended for mature audiences ages 14 and up. For more information and to purchase tickets, call (626) 356–3100 or go to anoisewithin.org.
