KING LEAR. To 12 January.
London.
KING LEAR
by William Shakespeare.
New London Theatre In rep to 12 January 2008.
Mon-Sat 7pm Mat 5,12,15,19,29 Dec, 2,5 Jan.
no performance 24-26,31 Dec.
Audio-described 15 Dec 1pm.
Captioned 6 Dec.
Runs 3hr 45min One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 890 0141 (£1.50 booking fee per ticket).
www.rsc.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 November..
Majestic central performance in an inventively-detailed production.
Rod Dungate’s Stratford review of Trevor Nunn’s Royal Shakespeare Company production, now sold-out at the New London Theatre, is in reviewsgate’s RSC section. I’d just add some details, starting with the music by Steven Edis, which charts the course of the play’s action from the thundering organ music of the opening scene.
It suggests a British cathedral service, and is followed by Elgar-like salon music, just waited to be repeated nobilmente, for the post-ceremony reception. As disorder and insanity approach the musical language becomes discordant and atonal, before reconciliation with Cordelia brings the human scale of live performance and a calmer tonality.
And that opening's cathedral-like aural tumult reflects Lear’s first appearance, more like a priest than a king – if Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible had been made in colour, its coronation scene might have included such a prelate. The mix of pagan world and Victorian England is no problem, being a very Shakespearean intermingling. But Lear’s raised arm and the court’s bowing at his first reference to the gods show this is a world where belief unites all except the evildoing individualists.
This framework allows for telling details. Burgundy and Cordelia kneel on hassocks, as in church, to plight their troth. When he breaks away, on learning she’ll have no dowry, it’s almost a matter of blasphemy against truth. Yet it’s this suitor Lear welcomingly invites to follow him as he ignores the loyal France.
It’s noticeable how the views of the gods – challenging, raging, believing in divine justice – vary with the mindsets of different characters. And this is a play where soliloquies go with the Gloucester branch of the action. In their place for Lear, Nunn varies the hectic action in later scenes with moments for the king’s calm consideration.
Even the dying Edmund’s final act of good has its origin in the sight of the dead sisters who’d loved him. It's such apt interpretative details (one more: a serving-woman dismissed by Regan, who knows horrors are about to happen, before the blinding of Gloucester) as well as “the great soaring sweeps” that make this indeed “a splendid affair”.
King Lear: Ian McKellen.
Goneril: Frances Barber.
Regan: Monica Dolan.
Cordelia: Romola Garai.
Duke of Albany: Julian Harries.
Duke of Cornwall: Guy Williams.
King of France: Ben Addis.
Duke of Burgundy/Captain: Peter Hinton.
Earl of Kent: Jonathan Hyde.
Earl of Gloucester: William Gaunt.
Edgar: Ben Meyjes.
Edmund: Philip Winchester.
Lear’s Fool: Sylvester McCoy.
Oswald: John Heffernan.
Curan: Seymour Matthews.
A Gentleman: David Weston.
Lady in Waiting: Zoe Boyle.
Knight/Servant: Adam Booth.
1st Gloucester Servant: Russell Byrne.
2nd Gloucester Servant: Melanie Jessop.
Knight/Messenger: Richard Goulding.
Doctor: Russell Byrne.
Soldier: Gerald Kyd.
Maid: Naomi Capron.
Director: Trevor Nunn.
Designer: Christopher Oram.
Lighting: Neil Austin.
Sound: Fergus O'Hare.
Music Steven Edis.
Music Director: Jeff Moore.
Company voice work: Lyn Darnley.
Dialect coach: Penny Dyer.
Fights: Malcolm Ranson.
Assistant director: Gemma Fairlie.
Associate designer: Morgan Large.
2007-12-02 14:14:05