King Lear
SHORT of dividing a kingdom between your daughters, there really isn’t much the serious theatre fan shouldn’t consider doing in order to lay their hands on one of the precious tickets for this brilliant version of Lear, surely destined to be remembered as one of the jewels in the crown of Liverpool’s year as European Capital Of Culture.
Directed by Rupert Goold and starring Pete Postlethwaite, it’s a production that’s daring, profound, mischievous and challenging, yet utterly accessible.
Postlethwaite’s Lear is a deeply moving portrayal of a man truly “more sinned against than sinning”, whose twinkling humour and essential vulnerability shines through even his most terrifying rages and deepest, darkest moments of despair and madness.
In fact, there’s barely a performance here that isn’t a superlative display of dramatic control and burning passion.
Improbably enough, the Fool, here played by Forbes Masson, is actually funny, while Jonjo O’Neill brings a perverse dignity to the villainous bastard Edmund.
Pure-hearted Cordelia (Amanda Hale) can sometimes seem insipid but her vengeful reappearance in this production is as heart-stopping a moment as her subsequent death is heart-rending.
Three hour-plus show
Goold has taken what seems to me to be pretty much the whole of Shakepeare’s text, so this is a three hour-plus show with just two brief breaks.
Yet it feels like it flies by. The director, who also worked with Pete on his Scaramouche Jones tour, hasn’t been afraid to bend, shape and shake the Bard’s words into a vibrant, relevant piece.
There are bursts of terrifying, Tarantino-esque violence – one woman even appeared to faint during the “out, vile jelly!” sequence as a sex and power-crazed Regan (Charlotte Randle) chewed on one of the eyes plucked from poor Gloucester (John Shrapnel) – but also the most startling, tear-jerking scenes of familial love and unexpected flashes of humour.
It is, in total, an utterly enthralling experience. See it if you possibly can.
King Lear is on at the Liverpool Everyman until Saturday, November 29.
Reviewed: Thu, 06 November, 2008
Your Ratings (Rollover to rate)
You must be logged in to rate this event
Register Now to rate this
