History is but a crime fiction
Whereas truth, daughter of time

“But say, my lord, it were not register'd,
Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
As 'twere retail'd to all posterity,
Even to the general all-ending day.”
—— Richard III

In 2012, a skeleton suspected to be the remains of King Richard III was found underneath a parking lot near a church in the Leicester city center. Later, it was confirmed by DNA tests that the skeletal remains were those of King Richard III, for centuries the most reviled of English monarchs. Through the description by Shakespeare, this deformed cripple has become the most infamous monarch in the English history and has even been described as a monster in fairytales, the destroyer of innocence, and the synonym of evil. However, historians and literary writers have been trying to rehabilitate the medieval king and to promote a more balanced view of Richard III.

If history is a crime fiction, how could it be molded and reshaped? Director Wang Chia-ming, twice Taishin Arts Award winner, tries his hands on Shakespeare’s works for the third time after Titus Andronicus and Romeo & Juliet, and challenges Shakespeare’s history play, Richard III. By real-time recordings, onsite sound-dabbing, and putting men along with puppets on the same stage, Wang Chia-ming aims to echo the contemporary politics in Taiwan with the history 400 years ago, exploring such questions as “What is history?” and “What is truth?”