As part of his innovative “Naked Shakes” reworking of Shakespeare, UCSB’s Irwin Appel took all eight of the Bard’s historical plays, from “Richard II” to “Richard III,” about 24 hrs worth of dense drama, and condensed them to 6 hours over two evening performances, calling it “Death of Kings.” It was a masterful and riveting (big) bit of theatrical magic. Then he created a “trailer” version for the 2017 Prague Shakespeare Intensive, getting the whole thing trimmed to a relatively brief 90 minutes which had it’s Santa Barbara premiere the third weekend in March. This was a prelude to a staging for the Scottsdale, Arizona Southwest Shakespeare Company’s spring season. Now titled “Death of Kings: Seize the Crown,” this is, of necessity, a fast-paced adaptation of an adaptation which is breathtakingly realized, with great acting by graduating seniors from UCSB’s BFA theater arts program, spot-on musical accompaniment by sonic wizard James Connolly, and of course, Irwin Appel’s strikingly unique and moving interpretation and direction.
