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I'm watching Kevin Spacey's production of Shakespeare's Richard III. Here's a link to a youtube video with some highlights.
One of the production decisions that I don't really understand is the decision of make Kevin Spacey's character, Richard, a hunchback. So... why is Richard a hunchback?
His physical deformities (which include but aren't limited to a hunched back) are a defining part of his personality and motivation, and inform how people interact with him. As for why Shakespeare wrote him that way...
It wasn't pronounced enough to give him a hunch, but for a lot of political reasons it was expedient for Richard's posthumous biographers to demonize the king. A twisted body is convenient rhetorical shorthand for a twisted mind, and his scoliosis was a useful thing to exaggerate for effect.
Shakespeare doubled down on this, describing Richard III as "rudely stamp'd", and "deformed, unfinish'd," with a hunched back, a limp, and a withered arm. In fact, Shakespeare makes Richard's fictional deformity the direct cause of his (equally fictional) villainy, thus tying propaganda neatly together with story and creating an extremely memorable villain we love to hate. It made for good theater, and he was writing in a country ruled by the royal line that overthrew Richard, so it was good for business all around.
This has been the common impression of Richard III ever since:
Laurence Olivier portrayed Richard III with padded clothing, a limp, and a false nose--and critics consider it understated compared to other portrayals.
Shows like "Red Dwarf" can expect the average audience member to recognize Richard III through the hunch alone.
When a re-imagining of the character doesn't include the hunch, it's commented on, repeatedly, by lay readers.
Academics have known for a very long time that Richard didn't have any pronounced deformity, but he's stuck with the hump in pop culture. In particular, removing the deformity from performances of Shakespeare's Richard III robs the character of his primary motive--so it's not done very often.
In Richard III, Act I, scene 3, lines 245-246 Queen Margaret tells Elizabeth that:
The day will come that thou shalt wish for me
To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-back'd toad.
and indeed, in In Act IV, Scene IV, lines 79-81 Queen Elizabeth does so curse Richard:
O, thou didst prophesy the time would come
That I should wish for thee to help me curse
That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad!
according to Wikipedia, in the second Quarto, the last line read "hunch-back'd", but it is retained as above in the texts I've found.
Also, in Henry VI, part 3, act III, scene 2, lines 1648-1650, Richard (here still called Gloucester), laments his looks:
To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
So it is pretty clear Shakespeare thought of him as a hunchback.
It's pretty well covered in the famous opening monologue to Richard III:
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking glass;
I, that am rudely stamped and want love’s majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them—
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity.
Richard III, Act I, Scene I
Since this is our introduction to the character, in his own words, it becomes challenging to portray him without some outward deformity (i.e. it would raise questions in the audience about why Richard perceives himself in that way, contrary to actual physical appearance. Still, it could be a quite interesting choice--if I were staging The Glass Menagerie I'd reduce Laura's limp to the point of imperceptibility to reinforce the idea that her real illness is her relationship with her mother;)
