Greg Malone, one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s best-known performers, returns to the LSPU Hall stage July 22–26 in Richard Three: Pas de Deux, a daring new two-hander adapted and directed by acclaimed theatre-maker Jeannette Lambermont-Morey. The production reframes Shakespeare’s Richard III as a contemporary inquiry into power, complicity and resistance.
A veteran duo takes on a tyrant
Malone, taking on the title role, shares the stage with Olivia-Graeme McNabb, who cycles through multiple figures from the play’s world. Lambermont-Morey, whose four-decade career spans major houses on both sides of the border—from the Stratford Festival to Virginia Stage Company—has made St. John’s her home base in recent years, continuing to direct nationally while developing new work.
“I love Shakespeare, and I’ve wanted to do Richard the Third since I was in high school, just about,” said actor Greg Malone. “These guys keep surfacing in our life and in our history; these bullies, these dictators. If you read Richard the Third, it’s exactly the rule book for Donald Trump and all of them, all of them…”
Lambermont-Morey’s script compresses and refracts the chronicle play through a contemporary lens, asking bluntly why male authoritarians persist across eras—and what it costs a woman to confront them. She and Malone first collaborated in 2011 on The Merchant of Venice in Cupids, a partnership that helped draw her permanently to Newfoundland’s theatre community.
“Working with Greg, who is an extraordinary actor, is one of the reasons I decided to move here,” said Lambermont-Morey. “He was absolutely in my mind when I wrote Richard Three: Pas de Deux and finally bringing this to the stage with him – and Olivia-Graeme – is just thrilling.”
A museum of myths and power plays
Staged inside a conceptual museum of 15th-century artifacts, the production casts McNabb as the resourceful, embattled Woman—an archival guide and shape-shifter who becomes Lady Anne, Queen Elizabeth, Buckingham and others, steering audiences through the rise and unravelling of Malone’s Richard. The piece is billed as an immersive, Shakespeare-informed journey that collapses history and legend into a single, tightly choreographed encounter between two performers.
- Two-actor format spotlights psychological stakes over pageantry.
- McNabb morphs between iconic personae to interrogate Richard’s ascent.
- Design situates the drama among artifacts, blurring exhibit and experience.
Dates and on-sale performances
The engagement includes a preview and opening night at 7:30 p.m. on consecutive evenings, before continuing its limited run at the LSPU Hall.
| Date | Performance |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, July 22 | Preview – 7:30 p.m. |
| Thursday, July 23 | Opening – 7:30 p.m. |
Why it matters now
Malone, now 77, approaches the role with a frankness that underlines the play’s ongoing relevance. The production’s focus on the endurance of strongman politics aligns Shakespeare’s psychological acuity with contemporary discourse. That Lambermont-Morey has chosen to develop and stage the work from Newfoundland underscores the province’s increasingly visible role in shaping national theatre conversations—leveraging local stages to premiere works with a wider Canadian resonance.
Richard Three: Pas de Deux ultimately uses minimal means—a duet of performers and a curated world of relics—to ask expansive questions about charisma, violence and the narratives that sanctify power. As McNabb’s chameleonic turns counter Malone’s cold-blooded tactician, the audience is invited to weigh who authors history, and at what cost.
