No, you don’t need to be disabled to play Richard III

Spiked Online ^ | 3 Feb 2024 | Lauren Smith

[Rummyfan]

Actors don’t need to share the ‘lived experience’ of their characters.

The Globe Theatre in London has come under fire for a supposedly controversial casting choice. Last week, it was announced that Michelle Terry, who is also the Globe’s artistic director, would be taking on the titular role in Shakespeare’s Richard III later this summer. Outrage immediately ensued. Because according to identitarian activists, Terry doesn’t have the ‘lived experience’ needed to play the scheming king.

Certainly, there are some pretty glaring differences between Michelle Terry and Richard III. For one thing, Terry is a woman and Richard, obviously, was a man. But what has actually upset the usual suspects is the fact that Terry is not physically disabled.

The Disabled Artists Alliance published an open letter this week, signed by more than 100 people and organisations in the arts, demanding ‘an immediate recast of Richard’. The signatories claim that it is ‘offensive and distasteful for Richard to be portrayed by someone outside the [disabled] community’. Casting an able-bodied person as Richard, it says, ‘reduces disability down to a disguise and physical act’. Actor Ben Wilson even accused Terry of ‘cripping up’ for the role.

[Rummyfan]

As Laurence Olivier famously said to a strung-out Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man (after he’d stayed awake for 48 hours straight to simulate the torment of his character): “Why not try acting dear boy?”

[silverleaf]

I guess we’re supposed to accept Richard III as a black lesbian….which would make the Welsh guilty of a hate crime

[devane617]

As a ‘disabled wheelchair user’ I don’t care.

[Dogbert41]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Dinklage-68257.jpg

Peter Dinklage gets my vote

[jmcenanly]

In 1997, The Shakespeare Theater put on a production of Othello with Sir Patrick Stewart in the lead role. Rather than use dark makeup on Sir Patrick, they decided to simply cast African American actors as the rest of the cast. Here is a photo of him with Desdemona.

If he had tried this today, he would be roundly denounced for depriving a black actor of the role.

[dfwgator]

I didn’t know Moochelle was an actress.

[Verginius Rufus]

Richard III is dead. How can any living person properly play him?

[PAR35]

I agree. They obviously need to cast either George Soros or Falsehood Fauci in the role.

[ansel12]

I hear they are having to recast Hannibal Lecter for the remake of The Silence of the Lambs.

[KarlInOhio]

He was also King of England. So, I guess King Charles is the only person who can play him.

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] For one thing, Terry is a woman... But what has actually upset the usual suspects is the fact that Terry is not physically disabled. The Disabled Artists Alliance published an open letter this week, signed by more than 100 people and organisations in the arts, demanding 'an immediate recast of Richard'. The signatories claim that it is 'offensive and distasteful for Richard to be portrayed by someone outside the [disabled] community'. [/snip]

[Red Badger]

If you follow their ‘logic’, only gays can portray gay characters, only women can portray women, only men can portray men and only idiots can portray liberals..................