“A Body Like This Can't Play Richard”

This chapter analyzes Kaite O’Reilly and Philip Zarrilli’s play richard iii redux [or] Sara Beer is/not Richard III. Sara Beer foregrounds her female, disabled, and Welsh embodiment to explore her connection to the historical Richard. The play interrogates the problematic nature of actors using prosthetics to “crip up” and play Richard and questions what Carrie Sandahl calls ‘the tyranny of the neutral’ (2005) in actor training, and the connections between the historical Richard and Welshness. In doing so, I argue that O’Reilly and Zarrilli’s text and Beer’s performance act to challenge the ableist ideologies underpinning both Shakespeare’s play and conventional practices in actor training and casting.