William Shakespeare
Richard III
The full script in Final Draft, Word & PDF
Richard of Gloucester schemes his way to the English throne and is undone by the guilt and enemies he has made along the way.
PDFs Only
$4.99
- ✓ Stageplay PDF (133 pp.)
- ✓ Screenplay PDF (127 pp.)
- ✓ Instant download
Full Package
$12.99
- ✓ Final Draft (.fdx)
- ✓ Microsoft Word + RTF
- ✓ Screenplay + Stageplay PDFs
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All 37 plays in every format cost $99, less than 8 single Full Packages. PDFs only: $55 for all 37.
- Genre
- History
- Written
- c. 1592–1593
- Setting
- England
- Scenes
- 25
- Speaking roles
- 67
- Uncut running time
- ~3h 30m
What happens in Richard III
At the end of the Wars of the Roses, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, announces that he is determined to be a villain. He has his brother Clarence imprisoned and murdered, then wins the hand of Lady Anne, whose family he helped destroy. As King Edward IV weakens, Richard moves against the queen's relatives and secures the crown with the help of the Duke of Buckingham.
Once crowned, Richard finds himself isolated. Buckingham deserts him, the old Queen Margaret delivers her curses, and the Earl of Richmond lands in England with an army. On the night before the Battle of Bosworth, Richard is visited in his sleep by the ghosts of his victims, and the play comes to its battlefield conclusion.
See the formatting
The first page of Act I, exactly as it appears in the files you download.
The biggest roles
Share of the play's spoken words, counted from the script. 67 characters speak; 48 of them have under 1% of the text — natural candidates for doubling.
| Role | Share of the text | Speeches |
|---|---|---|
| King Richard III | | 336 |
| Buckingham | | 95 |
| Queen Elizabeth | | 99 |
| Queen Margaret | | 35 |
| Clarence | | 32 |
| Lady Anne | | 50 |
| Hastings | | 48 |
| Duchess Of York | | 46 |
For directors
King Richard speaks 31.5% of the text in 336 speeches, one of the heaviest single roles in the canon. After Buckingham (9.7%) the writing is spread among the women, with Queen Elizabeth at 7.5%, Queen Margaret at 6.1% and Lady Anne at 4.2%. With 67 speaking roles across 25 scenes and 48 of them under 1%, doubling is essential. Uncut it runs about 3 hours 30 minutes, so a substantial cut is almost universal.
Cutting notes
- Productions routinely cut the cast list heavily, merging or removing minor lords and messengers to bring a 3 hour 30 minute text near a standard evening.
- Queen Margaret's scenes and curses are among the sections most often trimmed or, in some productions, removed.
- Short scenes such as the Scrivener's in 3.6 are often dropped because they add little to the plot.
For teachers
Typical themes include ambition, the ethics of the stage villain, fate and prophecy, and the Tudor view of history. Students frequently study Richard's opening soliloquy, his wooing of Lady Anne in 1.2, the cursing scenes with Queen Margaret, and the ghost scene before Bosworth. The play is also read for its relationship to the earlier Henry VI plays and as a model of the soliloquising villain.
Questions
Is this the complete, uncut text of Richard III?
Yes. Every file contains the full play — 25 scenes and about 28,500 spoken words. Cut it yourself in Word or Final Draft to fit your running time.
What is the difference between the stageplay and screenplay layouts?
The stageplay layout indents stage directions and sets dialogue full-width, like a theatre script. The screenplay layout follows film conventions: scene headings and action flush left, character names centred, dialogue in a narrower column. Both tiers include both layouts as PDFs; the Full Package adds editable Final Draft and Word files of each.
Can I use this Richard III script for a production or a class?
Yes. Shakespeare's plays are in the public domain, so there are no royalties to pay for staging them. Edit, stage, film or teach with these files.
How do I receive the files?
Right after checkout you land on a private download page, and the link is also emailed to you. It keeps working, so you can re-download any time.
