The second floor of Sidney Harman Hall, the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s lavish home on F Street NW, is a bloody mess. Literally. There are red handprints all over the glass, and gore dripping on a statue of artistic director Michael Kahn. All of this tells the audience one thing: You’re not about to step into a rendition of Much Ado About Nothing or Midsummer Night’s Dream. No, friends, it’s Richard III time.

Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s earlier plays, and its eponymous lead is one of his first stabs at a compelling anti-hero. He conspires openly with the audience, who can see how he’s lying to all the other characters, as he spouts some of the playwright’s most famous lines: The play kicks off with “Now is the winter of our discontent” and ends with “My kingdom for a horse!” But as even director David Muse (a former Shakespeare Theatre Company employee who now serves as the artistic director of Studio Theatre) acknowledges in his director’s note, Shakespeare made a long and confusing journey out of a story that’s pretty straightforward: A two-faced man plots and murders his way to England’s throne. Muse, like many people adapting Richard III, chose to edit the hell out of it (still not enough, in my opinion), and the play includes projected titles that introduce new characters, a smart bid to help the audience keep the thread of the plot.

Matthew Rauch makes for a compelling Richard as he slinks around the industrial-looking set, which wouldn’t be out of place in the torture-porn heavy Saw franchise. But really, this rendition is most riveting when it focuses on all about the characters who (spoiler alert) help him get seated on the throne. Everyone has a price, and Richard is willing to pay.

Ensemble players punctuate the action with step-dancing, which echoes through the theater thanks to sound design from Lindsay Jones. With each death in the first act, the number of people adding to the throbbing thumps grows. The scene showing the murder of Lord Hastings (Derrick Lee Weeden), a politician who won’t back Richard, creates a vivid depiction of this complicity. All of his fellow lords forsake him, and leave him to his bloody fate. But they stay on the stage, and add to the sounds that reach a fever pitch.

The slaps, claps, and stomps from the cast create the rhythm that allows Richard’s increasingly paranoid bloodlust to control the island. Without them, Richard’s just a guy with a strange metal hat. Or a dead man.

Richard III runs through March 10 at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall. Tickets $44-$118. Runtime approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.