The Stage

King Lear

Published Friday 17 February 2006 at 10:25 by Andrew Blades

The overwhelming space of the Cowley BMW plant is both a plus and minus for this monumental production of Lear. The sheer scale of the place convinces us both of the magnitude of the hostile outer world, and Lear’s own defiant smallness in the face of it.

The storm scenes resonate superbly, with Lear spotlit at the very back of the stage, hurling his invocations across the auditorium like impotent thunderbolts.

Yet sometimes Creation feel the need to use the space even when not strictly relevant to the action. Oswald’s frantic bike-pedalling serves no purpose other than to necessitate a lot of squeaky wheeling over important speeches.

It is symptomatic of a risk-taking production that often works, and sometimes falls flat. Doubling parts is standard in Shakespeare, but an Edmund/Kent pairing requires considerable editing and not a little confusion for a first-time audience. The Regan/Cornwall slow-dance that precedes their assault on Gloucester is not so convincing either.

But much of the acting is beautifully executed. Stephen Ley is a heartbreaking Lear, a mass of human contradictions - warm, irrational, sage and innocent, often within the same line. Charlotte Lucas and Eleanor Montgomery manage to imbue Regan and Goneril with a rare subtlety, while Andrew Macbean (Gloucester) proves that less is more in the cliff-top scene. A pity then that Jenni Maitland is so strident as Cordelia; her Fool seems to merge into the wronged daughter, and vice versa.

Nevertheless, this is a high-class production, as might be expected from Creation, with spectral music and expert costumes, not to mention a good few tears at the end.