Sunday, 17 Nov
12:00
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Times
12:00pm
Running Time 6 hours (includes interval)
Venue Main House, York Theatre Royal
Price £30-£40, £20 in Restricted View
Imagine if you could see and hear King Richard III speaking his own words. Imagine if you could see him thinking, breathing and effectively brought back to “life”.
Richard III was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485 at the age of 32. He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth (22 August 1485). He was the last King of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth was the penultimate battle in the Wars of the Roses and ushered in the Tudor dynasty.
The remains of Richard III were discovered in 2012 under a car park in Leicester by Philippa Langley M.B.E. through her Looking For Richard Project. Philippa’s search for the King’s grave was the subject of the award-winning TV documentary: Richard III: The King in the Car Park. The remains of King Richard were identified using a range of scientific disciplines including DNA analysis.
What started for Yvonne Morley-Chisholm, voice teacher and vocal coach, over ten years ago as an after-dinner entertainment to compare Shakespeare’s Richard III with what we know of the real man, developed quickly into a research project with a unique focus: to explore the possibility of recreating a literal voice for a long-dead King. Experts from various fields helped put the pieces of a complex puzzle together.
Sunday 17 November 2024 is the international launch of this pioneering work. Some of the experts will be present to share their part in what is being called the new science of Historical Human Reconstruction. They will include a key expert: Professor Caroline Wilkinson from FaceLab at John Moore’s University, Liverpool. This was where the painstaking work took place to recreate King Richard’s face based on the evidence from his skull. It is seen in The King in the Car Park documentary film. Another key expert is Professor David Crystal OBE He is the internationally recognised expert in Historical Linguistics and Original Pronunciation who agreed to work on the Ricardian pronunciation. He has refined it to 95% accuracy.
You will also hear from Philippa Langley MBE historian, author and producer, who discovered the King’s mortal remains and Matthew Lewis, historian, author and podcaster for History Hits.
A range of other experts were called upon to help flesh out the vocal profile including experts from the fields of otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat), speech and language therapy, dentistry, ethology (human behaviour from a biological perspective), genetics, physio-therapy, forensic-psychology, archaeology and researchers using contemporary materials, documentation and including the music, literature and religious practice of this King.
The event will cover how, after many years, the pieces have come together. How the latest state of the art technology is involved to create what has never been done before: a moving, breathing, speaking, “living” face. It provides important educative value to scholars and the public at large in understanding more about the last Plantagenet King of England.
After all the controversy surrounding this monarch and the questions raised about his actions and personality: was he a good man or murderous psychopath? In effect, King Richard III will speak for himself.
This is the in-person event. This event will also be livestreamed – for the livestream, click here: LIVESTREAM
