What is the Tower?

It is known during the play when Richard sends people to their death he ultimately sends them to the tower. What is this tower? Well, the tower is basically the place where the beheading takes place. Most can assume that but how can we as thespians communicate what the tower is?

I remember back in 2006 when witnessing a performance of Richard III at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The tower was shown as a stairwell down into a lit tunnel as everything surrounded it was in dark. It was a great way to portray a place of death. This tower only meant death and everytime someone was sent they would exit the stage in the manner as the actor before.

How would we determine this tower? One thing that should send chill down the audience spine is the person themselves getting sent to their death. There has to be a connection in the way the death occurs. Give the audience a little bit of guilt for not doing anything, so could this tower be an ascension into the audience? More has to be thought over on how we can leave the haunting thoughts of the dead into peoples mind.

Source:

"Princes in the Tower"  Oxford Dictionary of English. Edited by Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2010. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  Central Washington University.  11 March 2011  <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e0662070>