KING LEAR
DIRECTOR: Michael Grandage
CAST: Derek Jacobi, Alec Newman, Gwilym Lee, Ron Cook, Paul Jesson, Gine McKee, Justin Mitchell, Pippa Bennett-Warner
RATING: ****
DEREK Jacobi dominates this filmed version of the sold-out staged production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, running in Covent Garden, London. The National Theatre Live’s initiative to broadcast plays in cinemas has proved a winner and this is their second collaboration with a different production company.
A short but engrossing documentary feature on the Donmar Warehouse as a production company and theatre space precedes the play – with Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) and Jude Law explaining what it feels like to perform in the 250-seater.
Space is at such a premium the front row is practically sitting on the stage and for this performance of King Lear they’ve used a stripped- down stage decked out in plain, stressed whiteboards and floorlights.
The Donmar’s size and production style means a less ostentatious presentation than that of the National Theatre, so here the main feature is the performances.
In Shakespeare’s tragedy, the king disposes of his kingdom, dividing it between his eldest two daughters based on their flattering declarations of love, and then suffers the consequences.
Political machinations ensue, fathers and daughters, sons and their fathers, wisdom in folly, the nature of love and power, all themes are explored and then half the characters die.
Great emphasis is placed on the dissolution of the once powerful king as he loses his wits, certainty of place, station and everything he knows. Donmar turns this into a play of words – witty words and words which can hurt – and Lear, Edgar (Newman) and the Fool (Cook) come off the best. Everyone else just fades into the background.
Jacobi smoothly takes his Lear from nobleman impressed by his own status to broken father and by the time the play ends, you really do not want to get old.
lThe production launches abruptly right after the feature and there is a 20- minute interval, making this a three-hour, 15-minute-long screening. The last two screenings will be on Wednesday and Thursday at 7.45pm.