We all need a bit of Shakespeare when it gets to Week 3. Next up at the ADC this week is Aaron Kiercioglu’s interpretation of ‘Richard III’, a production which responds to the difficulties and nuances of this play’s rich history by setting Shakespeare’s script in 1980s England. The all too familiar ‘winter of our discontent’ is flung strangely fittingly into the interior of a shabby 80s bar which becomes the backdrop for the fights and fraternisation which characterise this intensely socialised play.

“This is a hyper-masculine environment in which any trace of male femininity is quashed”

Directors Aaron Kiercioglu and Tim Otto tell me how important it has been to make the distinction between Richard’s interior and exterior: “historically, his inward evil has always been portrayed as a reflection of his outward disfigurement, and people genuinely used to take that as a scientific fact.” It is paramount, he argues, to separate Richard’s physicality from his ‘evil’ throughout the play, an effect which is achieved in this production through a clever revisiting of Richard’s personal history. Kiercioglu imagines the regent as brought up in a ‘mobster’ family, giving a sense that his character has been formed by his upbringing and his family, rather than his ‘evil’ being inherent or intrinsic, and this makes it easier for us to sympathise with the king.

The notoriously challenging role of Richard himself is played by Stanley Thomas, and his interpretation responds astutely to the questions of disability which so often rules the play.

Georgina Taylor has worked alongside the cast as Disability Advisor to build up an authentic and sensitive portrayal of Richard's disability, looking at the effects of scoliosis on the physicality of this character as well as the emotional impact of such a condition in a society where ‘machismo’ and physical strength are glorified and even demanded. This is a hyper-masculine environment in which any trace of male femininity is quashed.

Kiercioglu describes the mobster setting as ‘that patriarchal mode of being’ which necessarily shapes Richard and his response to his physicality, and which prioritises the exploration of identity and masculinity which so dominates Shakespeare’s dialogues. Just like the best reinterpretations of Shakespeare, this context is one which does not completely recast the Bard’s immortal words but draws out their latent and yet most significant ideas.

“There is something satisfying in watching this final victory of female over male within the confines of what is essentially a very conservative play.”

That the setting is almost contemporary is also important. The play is liberated from what Kiercioglu rather ominously refers to as ‘that kind of politics’ – the kind of politics that can sometimes drag the play back into an inaccessible past and exclude modern-day audiences. Male characters are recast as female, defying the strictly gendered masculine world both of the Lancastrian court which Richard inhabits and of Shakespeare’s theatre.

Women are able to establish their power and their presence behind the scenes, pulling the strings of the men who fight out the political battles on public stages, allowed to have a voice of their own even within this highly masculine setting. The female becomes a modernising and equalising force in the play, as Annabelle Haworth’s Richmond regains the ultimate power over Richard’s fate at the end of the play. There is something satisfying in watching this final victory of female over male within the confines of what is essentially a very conservative play.

There are still traces, inevitably, in this 1980s scene, of gender inequalities and crushed feminine characters, traces which reflect on the dynamics of gender from the court of Richard III to our own modern-day world. There is something striking and so provocative in this exploration of the complexities of gender relations which the play foregrounds.

The large cast respond brilliantly to the constant, almost omnipotent presence of their protagonist, balancing neatly Richard’s ultimate authority with the sense that this is a communal play. The action and social dynamics controlled by not just one single character but a whole strata of society in their interactions and dialogues which Shakespeare is at pains to show us. Shakespeare’s Richard feels a painful desire to be respected, and the recast context and tightly-worked characterisations of this play make for a vivid exploration of these complexities and paradoxes of his character. This is Shakespeare rediscovered in a way that is bound to engage, move and make us reconsider the dynamics of societies far in the past and those closest to us.

• This article was updated on October 24th to correct the position of a member of the crew.