Oct. 6-9

U of L Thrust Theatre
2314 S. Floyd St. • 852-6814
www.louisville.edu/theatrearts
$8-$12; 8 p.m. (3 p.m. Sunday)

The University of Louisville theater department opens their 2011-12 season and prepares for the winter of their discontent this week with a lean two-hour production of Shakespeare’s longest history, “Richard III.” If you don’t know your Yorks from your Lancasters  (you know: beheadings, imprisoned princes, military rebellions, the usual), fear not — the bloody power struggle between old nobility and uppity social climbers is as entertaining as an episode of “Game of Thrones.” Richard is a grotesque hunchback with one treacherous eye on the throne of England and a soul as deformed as his body, “determined to prove a villain/and hate the idle pleasures of these days.” In other words, a real charmer. Director Rinda Frye promises a comic portrayal of the infamous would-be king, which bodes well — Richard’s a snake, but he’s still the hero of his own play, so of course he gets all the good lines. —Erin Keane