The Aztec temple, bongo drum and headdresses made of pheasant feathers do not immediately bring Shakespeare to mind. But in Richard III, which opens on the Loeb Mainstage this weekend under the direction of Kenneth P. Herrera ’03, the Aztec empire will serve as the backdrop to the Elizabethan historical tragedy.

Although Richard is one of Shakespeare’s most-performed works, it’s notorious for being difficult to stage.

King Richard III is now known for his legendary deformities and his hand in the deaths of child princes Edward and his brother. But Shakespeare’s account shows a Richard rising to and falling from power—and along the way arranging the murder of his brother and having his closest advisor killed for treachery.

The relationships between characters are complicated and difficult to follow even with script in hand; power and bloodlines are woven together in a dramatic mix Richard attempts to control.

“Richard is an extremely intelligent, thoughtful character on stage, and on the turn of a dime has schemes and ideas, and is in his own dark way very witty,” Herrera says.

Richard himself is in nearly every scene, and must perform some of Shakespeare’s most legendary lines—“now is the winter of my discontent” and “my horse, my horse, a kingdom for my horse.”

In this adaptation, Herrera has cut a significant chunk of the play’s less important scenes and removed some of the heavy Christian dialogue. But the play’s success still depends on Richard’s ability to capture the audience from the get-go.

“In the opening, Richard has to explain in this really textured monologue what he’s going to do, why he’s going to do it, and who he is,” says Brendon T. DeMay ’03, who plays Richard. “The whole play is so intense and the energy builds up scene by scene. You can’t drop it at any time.”

The play is structurally challenging, according to Herrera, because the ending “sets up a bunch of new problems.” And the student production demands that amateur actors both respond to the challenges of language and explore the mysteries and personalities of each character.

Throughout the production, Herrera, who was vice-president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club last year, says he’s tried to treat the process like any other production. He wants to keep up the energy of the performance and encourages his actors not to focus on treating Shakespeare’s work with too much reverence.

Like the Aztec empire, King Richard III’s reign comes to an unexpected and startling end while at the peak of power. Richard’s demise is plotted by Richmond, a character who is barely even mentioned in earlier acts. Richard then becomes a virtual Montezuma, with his slayer represented in European garb.

“I thought it would be very interesting to see how the text would inform the set of themes at the end of the play, in which Richmond is no longer the hero but instead is this very controversial figure coming in to conquer and colonize,” Herrera says. “That easily became a proxy for Cortez and the Spanish.”

Herrera says he has an abiding personal interest in Aztec culture. His parents were part of a Mexican folkloric dance group for 25 years. He says he’s been fascinated by the bright colors and vibrance of the society since first seeing an Aztec exhibit at a museum in middle school. Herrera said he aimed to capture the Aztec aesthetic because of the “amazing imagery we no longer have in this world” and use the text and the setting in a “symbolic relationship.”

—Staff writer Nikki B. Usher can be reached at usher@fas.harvard.edu.