King Lear
AS A new dawn rises in America, never do so many pray against Shakespeare’s warning that “madmen lead the blind.”
Rupert Goold’s trimmed-down King Lear shows we have not travelled so far from the broken values of its original setting. It, too, is a call for change.
This version opens to a corrugated steel backdrop as Thatcher’s 1979 election speech echoes in our ears: “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony...”
Enter Lear in a three-piece suit, party hat for a crown, determined to divide his kingdom among whichever daughter claims to love him the most. But the kingdom is thrown into turmoil when Cordelia (Amanda Hale) refuses to enter the PR war for power and is dismissed from sight while the rest scrap it out.
There is so much to enjoy. Forbes Masson’s Fool plays out like Batman’s Joker and Tobias Menzies’s wild Edgar is spellbinding but John Shrapnel’s blinded Gloucester and Pete Postlethwaite steal the show. Lear is a role perfect for Postlethwaite’s ragged, skeletal frame, seemingly on the verge of collapse as he goes from King to madman.
Despite its brilliance, the production severely stumbles at times, slipping into stilted school staging with rubber swords and groaningly forced visuals. Knights are replaced by soccer hooligans, Hale’s Cordelia seems more spectre than defiant spirit and Albany (Michael Colgan) is all limp lettuce. Yet excellent images of modern carnage and lawlessness, the torture of Gloucester, a martyr-style video of eldest daughter Goneril (Caroline Faber) and questionable parenting skills prove Lear has meaning today.
Change is good and Goold’s take has plenty, especially when he uses the Fool for longer than the playwright intended, for scheming Edmund (Jonjo O’Neill) to execute. How do you kill a jester? Edmund: “Knock, knock.” Fool: “Who’s there?” Bang! That’s how.
Liverpool Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, 0151 709 4776, until November 29; Young Vic, London, 020 7922 2922, January 29 to March 28.
