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Richard III
6 March - 15 March
For Bard in the Yard 2025 Michaeljohn Butcher directed Richard III.
Cast
| Richard the Third (Duke of Gloucester) | Colton Stuart |
| Duke of Buckingham | Allan Burne |
| Edward the Fourth | Philip Rossiter |
| Queen Elizabeth | Tilly Potter |
| Lady Anne | Lian Butcher |
| Lord Hastings | Rhiannon Bertaud-Gander |
| Earl of Richmond | Philip Rossiter |
| Prince Edward | Timothy Prebble |
| Prince Richard | Scout Hunter |
| Sir James Tyrell | Philip Rossiter |
| Duke of Clarence | Tom Martin |
| Sir Thomas Stanley | Tom Martin |
| Lord Rivers | Sandra Jean McClean |
| Sir Robert Brakenbury | Nicola Tod |
| Sir William Catesby | Michaeljohn Butcher |
| Jane Shore | Lian Butcher |
| Sir William Brandon | Rebecca Brennan |
| Duke of Norfolk | Will Clannachan |
| Bishop of Ely | David Gledhill |
| Murderers | Rebecca Brennan, Michaeljohn Butcher |
| Messengers | Peter Hughson, Sandra Jean McClean , Rebecca Brennan, Anne Manchester |
Publicity 2025
Ever since the bones of King Richard III were exhumed from a Leicester City Council car park in 2012, interest in the much-maligned king continues to grow.
But as far as Shakespeare was concerned, the embittered and physically deformed crown usurper was an unadulterated villain. Director of Butterfly Creek Theatre Troupe’s production in early March, Mike Butcher, believes Richard III is the best play Shakespeare ever wrote. He also believes he’s assembled the best cast to tell the story, with Colton Stuart in the main role, Allan Burne as Richard’s right-hand man Lord Buckingham, and Lian Butcher as Lady Anne Warwick, manipulated into marrying Richard but eventually murdered. Will the warring houses of York and Lancaster ever find peace?
From the Director
For me, King Richard III has been an almost lifetime study. Possibly one of England’s greatest Kings, an absolute all-rounder. His contribution to the legal system that exists today, his fair decisions to land disputes, where the poor could bring notice to any injustices inflicted on them by the ruling classes. When he was killed a chronicler from York wrote ”This day was our good King Richard slain”.
A Brilliant soldier, mentored and trained by the Earl of Warwick, ‘the king maker’, a loving husband to Anne Neville, and a fanatically loyal brother to Edward the fourth, when he was alive.
The mystery of Richard is, what changed this man in six short weeks, to become a cold calculating killer with the ultimate heinous crime of killing his two nephews? Did he or didn’t he kill the two boys? Yes he did… no he didn’t…the argument continues through history. Was Shakespeare fair in his interpretation of this seemingly loved king?
I dedicate this production, brilliantly brought to life by a stellar cast and crew, to Phillipa Langley, whose tireless devotion to English history, located and found the remains of King Richard the Third, England’s last Plantagenet King.
Listen to Anne Manchester and Lian Butcher discuss the play on Hutt City radio