For struggling actor, Elliot Garfield, getting cast as the title character in a New York production of Richard III is a dream come true. But, what do you do if your “mentally arthritic director” wants you to play the Duke of Gloucester “like a double order of fresh California fruit salad” (Elliot)? For Elliot you have no other choice but to do as his director Mark says and play the part of Richard “as a flaming homosexual” (Mark). The Goodbye Girl focuses a large portion of its storyline on a production of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Richard III. Elliot is a Chicago native who gets a wonderful acting opportunity in, according to Elliot an “off off off off off Broadway”. He spends his last money to move to the Big Apple to pursue his theatre dreams. He soon learns at the first read through with the cast about how his director Mark envisions his version of the Shakespeare classic.…show more content… It’s amusing to note the director found it strange that in the 1955 production, Sir Laurence Olivier played the Duke as right hand, left food deformed to which he told his cast, “God knows why” (Mark). He also describes Richard as having some nerve damage to his eyelids and right cheek. Mark notes, “I mean the man was your basic gimp”. He then questions whether or not his cast wants to play Richard this way. Mark felt like “society crippled Richard not childhood”. He wants to forget about all his abnormalities and physical disabilities and just wants to “strip Richard bare metaphorically” (Mark) and show the audience what Richard would look like if he was living in modern times. The problem with this is that Mark sees Richard as “The queen who wanted to be king”, to which Elliot wonders aloud, “Are you
