|
It is backed by high production values, the performances
are full-strength: the drama always engaging and purposeful.
The English Touring Theatre has taken an old walrus
of a play, stripped it to the bare boards, and given the surface
a gleaming gloss.
There are some superlative performances, directed
by Stephen Unwin, who lets the power of the play take over.
Lear's theme centres on an old man who wants to
hand over his three daughters' inheritance while he is still alive,
while being assured of their unswerving love for him.
Family rows
The fact that the octogenarian is a king, their
future is his kingdom, and he has become a cantankerous and selfish
monarch, with enemies abroad and at home, adds fuel to the family
rows.
Lear is cast out and down, and suffers an intermittent
madness that takes hold at the height of a rainstorm.
As the lightning cracks across the sky, he rages
at life.
Intertwined stories
Alongside this royal furore, rivalry between two
brothers wrecks the Gloucester family, and the two stories are neatly
interwoven.
Bloodshed, tears and shocking torture ensues, but
there are moments where humanity shines through, even stretching
to a laugh or two.
Timothy West
This period dress production is led by Timothy
West: a family man and fine actor.
Towering and majestic as Lear, he brings experience,
timing and a gravitas to the role, without making it ponderous or
dull.
His journey into the early stages of what could
be Alzheimer's brings a new self-awareness, an acceptance of what
is: he's content to be a child again.
The Gloucesters
The other family split apart by conflict is headed
by Michael Cronin as poor, betrayed Gloucester whose eyes are forfeited
for perceived wrongs against the state.
Both Cronin and Dominic Rickhards - who plays his
son - give moving performances.
Thorns in his side
Goneril and Regan are the grown-up daughters from
hell. Lear says of his eldest, "Thou art a disease in my flesh",
in other words a canker that is part of him, though he cannot cast
it out.
Later he calls them unflatteringly "unnatural hags".
Congratulations
It's stark, uncompromising, but has an honesty
I've not seen in other Lears. It's beautifully lit, with clear sound
and a set engaging in its simplicity.
All of human life is in these characters, showing
how easy it is for a worm to turn.
Congratulations to the English Touring Theatre
which, by throwing out the chaff, has come up with a golden crop.
|
View 
