World Premier – A Voice For King Richard III

Imagine if you could see and hear King Richard III speaking his own words. Imagine if you could see him breathing, thinking and effectively ‘brought back to life’.

On Sunday 17 November 2024 at York Theatre Royal, state-of-the-art technology will reveal for the first time: a moving, breathing, ‘living’ face of a long-dead king speaking his own words in the pronunciation of his time.

What started for Yvonne Morley-Chisholm, expert voice teacher and vocal coach, over ten years ago as an after-dinner entertainment to compare Shakespeare’s character with what we know of the real man, developed quickly into a research project with a unique focus: to explore the possibility of creating a literal voice for a long-dead historical figure. Fast-forward ten years and this international launch event will cover how the pieces of a complex puzzle came together using primary evidence.

This is the new science of Historical Human Reconstruction or Postmortalism, which uses an avatar of the person, based on the reconstruction of their head. It provides an entirely new way to learn about the past. In this instance we’ll understand more about the last Plantagenet King. It also paves the way for other historical avatars in the future.

After all the controversy surrounding this monarch and the questions raised about his actions and personality: was he a good man or murderous psychopath?

Now King Richard III will speak for himself.

Experts from across the UK and abroad joined in this unique, pioneering collaboration. Some of them will share presentations during the international launch event at York Theatre Royal starting at 12 noon through to 6pm with the final ‘reveal’ at 5.30pm.

Taking the rostrum with Yvonne Morley-Chisholm is the key collaborator: leading cranio-facial identification expert Professor Caroline Wilkinson and her Face Lab team, and Professor David Crystal OBE, internationally acclaimed linguist and leading specialist in Original Pronunciation.

Joining them will be playwright Dr Bridget Foreman from the University of York, as well as historians Matthew Lewis and Philippa Langley MBE.

As well as exploring the fascinating true history of King Richard III, the event will include discussion on a wide range of topics including Medieval History, Linguistics, Original (Historical) Pronunciation, Craniofacial Reconstruction, Forensic Psychology, Voice and Dialect, Historical Human Reconstruction, Postmortalism, CGI and Motion-Capture among other specialisms.

A Voice for King Richard III is at York Theatre Royal Sun 17 Nov.

Find out more information and book your tickets here.

The event will also be Live-streamed.

Schedule for the event from 12 noon to 6pm finish:

First session 12.00 – 13:30: From the myths to the man

13.30 – 14.30: lunch  break

Second session 14.30 – 16.00: The experts speak: Historical Human reconstruction

16.00 – 16.30 break

Third session 16.30 – 18.00: Continuation and culmination: the reveal