Nicolás Perez Costa is an award-winning theatre maker and I had the privilege of interviewing him about his latest play, a re-interpretation of Shakespeare’s Richard III, his respect of original works, his respect for Shakespeare, his use of bold staging and movement, what inspired him to enter the theatrical world and into so many roles from director to actor and more…
Richard III received multiple Off Theatre Award nominations. These were for best Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Set Design.
Performed in the round and accompanied by live percussion, this physically driven reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s notorious King Richard III places the audience directly inside a brutal and decaying universe where power is fought through bodies, rhythm, and violence.
Let’s give a warm welcome Nicolás Perez Costa to Bookmarks and Stages, where he has answered questions comprehensively with fascinating details.
What attracts you to Shakespeare’s works in general and at what point in your life
did you become interested?
Shakespeare represents, for me, the perfect union of an impeccable dramatic structure, the
beauty and ingenuity of his poetic language and verse, and a vision of the human being that
is, at times, compassionate and, at others, brutally honest. That combination can only
produce the sense of hypnosis we experience when we read his work or watch it performed.
My interest in Shakespeare began when I was a teenager, reading his plays in literature
classes, at first simply because they were part of the curriculum. Gradually, I found that his
writing pulled me out of my chair and invited me to try his speeches, to play with them, to
imagine them. I remember classmates who considered Shakespeare old-fashioned, seeing
his language as something distant from our time. But even then, at a very young age, I felt
the urgency and relevance of his characters, and I was already imagining them inhabiting
different worlds, or existing within the anachronistic universes that were taking shape in my
own imagination.
What fascinates you about Plantagenet King Richard III in particular?
The first time I read Richard III, I was fascinated by the way Richard draws the audience into
his bloody and sinister plans with such naturalness and, I would even say, an irreverent
charisma. The idea of a character with absolutely no limits in the pursuit of his ambitions
captivated me.
To me, those ambitions are born from resentment: the resentment of not having been born
with a body or into a position that would allow him to be loved or recognised. Watching that
resentment transform into a ruthless and bloody plan, and then seeing everything eventually
collapse, feels like a reminder that what is achieved through evil ultimately destroys itself.
This is exactly the kind of story I feel most connected to telling. It reflects the kind of
questions I want theatre to ask and the kind of world I hope it can inspire us to build. I love
history, particularly the histories of England and France, but when I approach plays like this, I
move beyond the historical facts. What interests me is literature’s ability to reveal a deeper
truth: to hold a mirror up to our own reality, or to imagine the world as it could one day
become.
You have created a physical reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s notorious King
Richard III, placing the audience directly inside a brutal and decaying universe. How
have you achieved this and what inspired you to go down the physical route of acting
to tell this story?
My career began in musical theatre. Then, in my mid-twenties, I met a director in Argentina
who introduced me to classical theatre, and above all, to her love of Shakespeare and
Chekhov. From that moment on, I couldn’t help but bring those two worlds together. I have
dedicated my career to bringing the truth and emotional depth of classical theatre into
musical theatre, and, in turn, bringing the physical language of musical theatre into classical
texts.
When I speak about musical theatre, I don’t mean high-energy musicals. I mean the
integration of the body, the voice and emotional truth. I believe that what is expressed
through the body reaches the audience in a direct and instinctive way. They don’t need to analyse every word or fully understand everything that is happening intellectually. Somehow,they recognise that whatever is happening in the actor’s body is also happening within their own.
You’ve re-interpreted the play using bold staging and movement, making it dystopian to show its hard-hitting themes of power and manipulation. What are the challenges in re-imagining a play that’s centuries old and creating a play that’s both recognisable but fresh for a modern audience, whilst also being sensitive to the original piece?
My respect for the original work comes naturally because I have deep respect for literature and for history. I respect the people who came before me, both in life and in this profession. I respect tradition, and I believe that if a work has survived for centuries, it is because of its extraordinary mastery.At the same time, I believe that re-imagining a play and giving it a language and a rhythm that speak to a different audience is also a way of respecting its author. Shakespeare wrote this play centuries ago for an audience that lived at a completely different pace, listen differently, and experienced theatre in a completely different way. I don’t believe that if Shakespeare, or any of the great playwrights of the past, were writing today, they would necessarily write in exactly the same way. The ultimate purpose of theatre is not simply toexpress what we think, but to communicate it to the person who is listening.I firmly believe that theatre does not belong to those who make it, but to those who watch itand experience it. The challenge is always to create a production that can be understood even by someone who would not normally choose to see Shakespeare. Shakespeare, like all great playwrights, needs theatre to remain alive. He needs new audiences. As Chekhov says in The Seagull, “new forms are needed.” For me, the artist’s constant search is for a theatrical language that keeps audiences close to theatre, and encourages those who have never entered a theatre before to come in.
What does showing your play in the round add to the actors’ performances and audiences’ experiences?
I think it’s a fascinating choice, especially at a time when theatre is constantly searching for new forms. The audience is no longer simply a distant, objective observer of what is happening. Instead, they become part of the event itself. The audience doesn’t just watch a character looking at something they can also see how and from where that character is looking. In scenes where ten characters gather to discuss issue, I love the feeling that the audience becomes the eleventh character. Without speaking or intervening, their physical presence changes the energy of the scene. That transforms the way they experience the play, but it also transforms us as actors. Our responsibility is no longer simply to direct our performance towards the audience’s gaze, but to embrace their presence and draw them into the fiction itself.
Who or what inspired you to become an actor, director and playwright and what’s it
like to now have Off Theatre Award nominations for Best Play, Best Director, Best
Actor, and Best Set Design for your work?
To be honest, I like to define myself simply as a theatre-maker, because throughout my
career I have worked in many different roles and learned this craft from many different
perspectives. Becoming an actor, director and playwright wasn’t something I planned—it was the natural consequence of my curiosity, of what fascinated me, and, above all, of the
support my parents gave me when I was very young, encouraging me to follow my instincts.
When I was a child, my aunt was an actress. At school, I had teachers who nurtured my
interests, and I even started little theatre groups during breaks, directing my classmates long before I knew what directing really meant. But without question, my life changed when I met my first great mentor, Pepe Cibrián, in Argentina when I was fifteen. Some encounters are planned, but you can never imagine how profoundly they will shape your life. Mine changed from that moment on.
One day I realised that my life was theatre, and that it could never have been anything else.
There is a beautiful idea that vocation is not something we choose, but something that
chooses us. If we ignore that calling, the consequence is an existential emptiness. I never
really felt I had another option. I have always been who I am, and I have fought to develop that identity.
Receiving these nominations, and later winning Best Play, Best Set Design and Best
Leading Actor, together with previous nominations in Argentina and the José Estruch Award in Spain two years ago for Juana la Loca, feels like a confirmation that the path I chose is recognised by others as meaningful and worthwhile. Those awards don’t give meaning to the choices I made in the past, but they do give strength to the choices I make today. They allow me to look back and realise that, sometimes, after spending years swimming against the current, the current eventually begins to flow with you rather than against you.
What’s next for your play or career?
The Madrid cast will continue touring the production across Spain. Here at The Cockpit, we will present the play with our UK cast, and we hope to continue finding new venues where both productions can keep growing.
Although they share the same artistic vision and the
same origins, they have naturally become two very different productions.
Theatre is never completed by the director alone, it is completed by the actors, and I always try to remain open and flexible to what each company brings to the work.
When I return to Spain, I will continue performing Juana la Loca, which I have been
performing for the past nine years, and Dos Tronos, Dos Reinas, which has been on stage
for the last two. I will also continue leading my acting school, IFAM, where I constantly
develop new productions with my students. One of my greatest passions is creating
opportunities for emerging artists and teaching them the self-management skills that allow them to build their own careers, rather than feeling that their future depends entirely on others.
Looking ahead, I also have a deep personal wish: that the next role I encounter as an actor will be Hamlet, so I can continue exploring this same theatrical language while discovering an entirely new fictional world.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 