THE RENDITION MEETS ADJOA ANDOH
“They see the outside of that human being and they pathologize that body. I’m interested in talking about the pathologizing of the human body to the detriment of the human soul.”
When Adjoa Andoh read Richard III at the age of 9 she saw something that resonated with her, a story that she wanted to tell. Around 50 years later this dream has become a reality. In her exposition of Richard III, Andoh asks some crucial questions by exploring the life of Shakespare’s, Richard III who was willing to do anything to anyone who stood in his way of becoming the King of England.
Andoh is known for wearing several hats, but the most prominent being her role as Lady Danbury in Netflix hit Bridgerton. She’ll be directing and starring in the production of Richard III that premiers in Liverpool this month.
We spoke to Adjoa earlier this week, understanding her motifs behind this play, the accessibility of Shakespare and the joy of telling a story of your passion.
“Hold your nerve and hang on in there because you can find your way into the miracle of being alive”
QUESTION: Why did you fall in love with Richard III, what drew you to the story?
ANSWER: I've loved Richard III… I read this play when I was about 9 or 10 and, um, I had a really strong sense of it's not fair, you know, that Richard was treated in a certain way, malevolent motives were ascribed to him, by the wider society because he looked different and they decided the different he looked, meant that he was evil. I just thought, let me take that idea and take it from a body that's different and put it on a body that is a different race… And I was a little kid, so we're basically doing 50 year love. This is the play of my child's heart really.
QUESTION: How have you tackled the issues on accessibility of Shakespeare's script for today’s audience?
ANSWER: When a kid reads, um, “I shall despair, there's no creature that loves me and if I die, no one, no one shall pity me.” You understand. You understand that. You understand when a mother says to a child, “I wish I'd strangled you at birth.” All that language is so clear and, and you know, I'm doing anything radical, I'm not, Shakespeare uses all that language.
The language of hostility and the language of the child who's just craving love from somebody is all in the text. I haven't had to make it up or rewrite it. It's there. It's just that people don't choose to see it and as a nine or 10 year old, I saw it and I heard it. And I didn't hear it from an academic or an intellectual or an educated place. I heard it from a place of feeling. Shakespeare writes on the heartbeat. You can do all the intellectualising you like, but at the end of the day, he's writing about human beings because we all share a heartbeat. And that's what I'm interested in. So I wanna tell the story through this particular lens.
And you know, if you see the poster, there is one black face in the sea of white, and black people will get that. I don't need to explain it to them, they get it straight away. So I am speaking to that audience, to us, but I'm also speaking to anybody of course, who comes along and sees it and says, I have felt judged and excluded and mocked and derided because of what I look like. Of course. You know, and anybody can feel that.
QUESTION: What should the audience be looking forward to regarding Richard III?
ANSWER: I feel Shakespeare often gets used to beat us over the head with things like, you are not smart enough to understand it, or you're not educated enough to understand it. My question is, if you punch down on someone for long enough and hard enough, when they punch back, what happens? That's the show I'm interested in talking about. So I wanted to also tell the story of what it is to be off colour, growing up in a rural English setting, and how you kind of, that's your childhood.
When people commit to buying a ticket to see a show that I've got responsibility for, I want to give them a show. When they leave, I want them to feel they've had their money's worth. I want them to laugh. I want them to cry. I want them to have been shocked. I want them to be dragged along by the words. I like telling the story as clearly as I can so that nobody feels intimidated or left out, or, you know, confused. So, you know, when people tell me that they've been, they’ve understood everything that was going on, for me that's the highest praise.
QUESTION: What are you enjoying the most about rehearsing and performing another form Shakespares play?
ANSWER: I wanted to do this play for the longest, longest time. It's great because when I talk about this play, I know exactly how it should look. I know what I wanted to design to be like, I know what the music should sound like. So, the whole thing is in me, and there's music in it that I dreamt of that's gone into, so it's, it is my love letter to Richards and for all of us who have been the Richards.
And I’ve actively put myself in the position now of being the only one in the cast, but not in the room because I've got my assistant director, Harriet O'Grady, also a mixed race and grew up in the West Country. My brother is in the room. Our deputy stage manager, Shanice is a woman of colour and our fight Director and co-movement director, Nicole Alfa. Where I'm not balancing it on stage, I'm trying to rebalance it in, you know, in production.
On the other side of this, is a little girl who dreamt of this play and now I'm putting that play on; I'm in my most happy place now. And little Adjoa, can look back on that childhood and go ‘there you are, see what you did, it's alright’.
QUESTION: How would you describe the production in 3 words?
ANSWER: Thrilling, Surprising and Moving
Following this conversation, we are all the more eager to watch Richard III.
The show is running from the 06 — 22 April at Liverpool Playhouse and from 26 April — 13th May at Rose Theatre, Kingston Upon Thames.
