KING LEAR

Artisans Drama Society at Brentwood Theatre

01.03.11

Nicola Stacey's bold interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy tried very hard to be interesting. The programme – an excellent guide to the play and the production – explains the style and the focus on dementia and decline.

I liked the bare stage, the armorial banners, the original music [Mike Coy]. The grey costumes worked well, and the opening scene, with the ten actors ceremonially donning the details that define their characters, was impressive.

Doubling Fool and Cordelia is strongly suggested in the text, and Alice Stacey brought a youthful freshness to both, though her performances needed to be bigger to match the style of the rest. Her sisters [Bernadette Rodgers and Emma Feeney] were suitably evil, but a little more steel and stillness would have made them stronger. I was less sure about the three Lears. The idea was to show the descent into madness, but all three men [Matt Jones, who had the lion's share, Neil Gray and Darren Matthews] were powerful actors who were better at the king's rage than his weakness. But the moments when all three shared the role – the storm, the death of Cordelia – were chillingly moving.

Some things should have been axed during rehearsal. The eyeballs – although I was genuinely shocked by the red stiletto – and the heartbeats in the background.

But there was much to admire in this flawed exploration of the infirmity of age, and I would always support innovation and risk, as we strive to “take upon us the mystery of things” …