Richard III July 13, 2012

In a play populated with shady characters (spoiler alert: there are few innocents here), Richard, in his bloody ascent to power, makes the rest look like amateurs. It's not so much Richard's evil that gets our attention; it's his self-awareness, his conscious choice to become that way. Whether history or tragedy, 'Richard III' is a thriller, its namesake getting away with murder (literally) and seemingly loving every minute of it until a critical mass of conscience, curses and ghosts threatens to take him down.