Handlebards

Raby Castle’s walled garden provided the latest stop for a troop of strolling, or rather cycling, Shakespearean players, who call themselves appropriately enough ‘The Handlebards’, on their epic ride to the Edinburgh Festival and tonight they gave us their manic take on Richard III, the all-male cast of four playing the forty-one characters of both genders, cleverly distinguishing between them with subtle re-arrangements of costume and props (mainly hats – indeed some characters were solely hats) and less subtle variations in voice and accent; the Bard’s words were well delivered within the light-hearted production, ideal for a summer’s evening audience of picnickers who showed their appreciation with a standing ovation at the final curtain (though there were no curtains, or stage, or lights, or sound system, and precious little scenery, unsurprisingly as it all has to transported from venue to venue by bike).