King Lear

Guest blog post by Dr Rebekka Kill

I haven’t been to see Shakespeare for ages, years probably and I’ve never seen King Lear. I sort of knew the story but mainly from studying art history; something about madness and daughters?  So, in many ways, our trip to the theatre on Saturday night was a bit of a gamble.

A gamble because my other half and I have different tastes when it comes to theatre. I like contemporary devised stuff, cabaret and burlesque, club, festival and street performance; he’s not so bothered. He once took me to see ‘Happy Days’ by Samuel Beckett with Prunella Scales playing the lead (WYP 1993) and I fell asleep and snored loudly.

This time the West Yorkshire Playhouse was fairly busy, probably about two thirds full, and we had good seats.

The set design was absolutely amazing: reds, from blood to brick, greys and black, asymmetric, angular, clear references to Russian constructivism. The costumes were similarly brilliant, bold colours, military, jack boots and epaulettes, great-coats for the blokes and bustles for the sisters.

As you probably know, the play opens with King Lear dividing his kingdom among his three daughters in proportion to how much they love him. The first two daughters go incredibly over the top in their declarations of love but Cordelia, his youngest and favourite daughter, refuses to flatter her father so she is disinherited and banished. This is clearly a misjudgement and this is a theme throughout the play; parents misjudging their adult children. Needless to say the other two daughters behave horrifically and it doesn’t turn out well.

King Lear is a proper Shakespearean tragedy. There’s lots of misunderstanding, double-dealing, betrayal, pretense and ultimately death. It’s also about old age and madness with little bit of eye gauging. Cheery stuff? Not really. And it’s also very long; the first act is over 90 minutes.

But this production definitely didn’t drag; it was pacey and intense. And, despite the big themes and emotional outbursts, it never descends into anything like hammyness – mainly due to the excellent Tim Pigott-Smith as Lear, and the rest of the cast’s solid, believable performance. If anything King Lear is an ensemble piece, so the dark, selfish sisters, the stoic Gloucester and wild, rambling Poor Tom had to be excellent too. They were.

King Lear is often described as Shakespeare’s greatest play. I’d say it was probably Shakespeare’s most bonkers play. It’s not just that it’s about madness and that the plot is mad. It also descends into gobbledygook. Let’s face it, Shakespeare isn’t always easy to follow if you haven’t seen it written down, but some of this is actually incomprehensible. There is quite a lot of this kind of thing:

“Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once; of lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and mowing, who since possesses chambermaids and waiting-women”

Huh?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d definitely recommend a trip to see this play. It’s visually sophisticated, well performed and action-packed. It does come with a health warning: there aren’t many laughs (maybe two?) – in fact it’s relentlessly grim.

It’s visually engaging, but it’s the performances that make this production fly. They succeed in bringing the language to life – and that is the key to Shakespeare. However dark, crazy and disturbing the story, however brutal the torture, death and destruction, however devious the betrayal and conspiracy, the language sparkles with a staggering playfulness – lighting up that midnight madness with bolts of inspiration and energy.

West Yorkshire Playhouse

23 September – 22 October

Box Office 0113 213 7700

Photo credit Keith Pattison