Real Live Theater presents
The Life and Death of Queen Margaret

The Life and Death of Queen Margaret is a beautifully woven tapestry of Shakespeare’s text bringing us a female centric tragedy – created by Toby Bercovici and Dan Moyburn. This piece breathes and vibrates through moments of choreography by Annelise Nielsen, catapulting us through the bodies, spaces, and historic events that revolved around Margaret of Anjou- the fierce Frenchwoman who found herself in the middle of the War of the Roses.
This all female cast becomes the memories, emotions, curses of Margaret as she reflects on the tempest of her life and all the male characters (Henry VI, Richard III, Edward IV, etc.) who sought to put her down.

Directed by Toby Bercovici

If you run quickly through a list of Shakespeare’s tragedies you may notice something: Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear – the title characters are all men. Of course, there’s also Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra – but no woman stands alone as the main character of a Shakespeare tragedy. Some theatre companies have compromised by casting women in traditionally male roles. But Real Live Theatre (at Theatre for the New City) is taking a bolder approach. Queen Margaret of Anjou appears in four of Shakespeare’s plays (more than any other Shakespearean character): Henry VI Parts I-III and Richard III. The Life and Death of Queen Margaret (directed by Toby Vera Bercovici) combines Margaret’s four appearances into one play, and adds details on which Shakespeare is silent, such as Margaret’s early life in France before her coming to England. As a result of Bercovici’s and Dan Morbyrne’s tight script (woven from Shakespeare but “funneled and augmented”) and Myka Plunkett’s beautiful acting, Margaret of Anjou becomes decidedly whole and decidedly human. She also becomes a force to be reckoned with – by both her political opponents and the audience watching her story unfold, grapplin …Read more