The opening and closing snapshots of battle, accompanied by harsh music and interrupted by blackouts, are effective in creating the Wars of the Roses setting in a limited space.

But opinions will be divided on the device of having actors' eyes blackened and faces whitened, sometimes with bloody or black markings. Is it to emphasise the impersonal nature of war, or is it just a gimmick? Certainly the modern dress is a mish-mash.

Otherwise some of the detail is clever, with Blackadder-style black humour in the way Richard climbs over a victim's corpse to seduce his widow, for example.

In simple performance terms, verbal emphasis is often just plain wrong and much of the verse-speaking does Shakespeare no justice.

Gavin Williams plays the title role with occasional flashes of the charm this evil character must have and occasional volcanic eruptions that give him his terror value.

But Richard can only be believable as any kind of a tragic figure if he has charisma, and Williams seemed last night still to be working on that as he was on a few of his lines.

Otherwise 10 actors play 38 roles – a recipe for lack of depth and for some audience confusion.

Until Saturday.