King Lear

 It was a long and wavering 3 hours and 15 minutes at Queensland Theatre Company’s opening night of King Lear. There were high points of stirring passion and low points of drawn-out dialogue. 

 Queensland Theatre Company & Bell Shakespeare CompanyQPAC, Brisbane Thursday, 6 May, 2010
King LearIt was a long and wavering 3 hours and 15 minutes at Queensland Theatre Company’s opening night of King Lear. There were high points of stirring passion and low points of drawn-out dialogue. The only times I really seem to “get” Shakespeare is when it’s the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet, or any other modernised adaptation like La Boite’s recent huge success, Hamlet. Even then I am sometimes lost in the text. So, when I see a powerful, and mostly traditional, rendition of King Lear, I am overwhelmed by the intense concentration it requires and the long-winded conversations that I just can’t follow. Fortunately, I understood the general gist of things thanks to brilliant actors who can intonate the language conveying the sentiment because they understand it thoroughly, as apposed to just reading the text aloud. I can’t ignore, however, that the very long play lost my attention on many occasions. For the most part it was quite flat and only in parts was my interest sparked by the exciting scenes and fervent exchanges of words. King Lear is an un-mothered man who asks his three daughters to verbally declare their love for him to help him decide how to divide his possessions upon his death. Essentially the daughters resemble Cinderella and her two older and uglier sisters. When Lear’s favourite, his youngest Cordelia, struggles to express her most genuine love for him in words, he cuts her from the legacy and disowns her. This leads to several tragic events and involves many convoluted relationships that largely include that of Earl of Gloucester and his two sons, one legitimate and one illegitimate. Ultimately the characters’ feuding and Lear’s path to insanity result in a myriad of tragedies and his death. John Bell, artistic director of Bell Shakespeare Company, was genius as King Lear. The man was magic. He completely absorbed his character’s traits and beautifully displayed Lear’s weaknesses and downfall. Both Jane Montgomery Griffiths and Leah Purcell were bold and taunting as Lear’s two malicious daughters, Goneril and Regan. I particularly admired Purcell’s wickedness. Josh McConville, as Edgar, had a powerful presence on stage and really moved me when nursing his father. His sinister and cheekily devious brother Edmund, played by Tim Walter, was pungently cruel but quite charming in parts. Peter Carroll gave a brilliant performance as the delightful fool with a wonderful kinked humour. All performers were of the high quality you would expect from the Bell Shakespeare Company. Visually the set was pretty stark, but the use of a revolving sphere platform was very effective – particularly in a scene with Lear and the Fool enduring the wild weather. Sparkle that littered the stage was also an interesting way of making the set vibrant, but the minimally-filled space was generally too open in most scenes. Costumes made by Anthony Philips Costumes and designed by Dale Ferguson and Peter Bevan were perfection. Fur coats (I’m not sure if they were real fur or not) featured on many of the cast and this was a great theme featuring though the production. Extravagant dresses were also striking. Sound was unusual. It was a live set up on stage that included drums among other instruments, handled solely by composer and musician Bree van Reyk, designed by Stefan Gregory. Often it worked well in creating tension and building climaxes, but other times it seemed out of “sync” with the characters and was sometimes distracting. If you are not familiar with any Shakespeare play you’re about to see I’d recommend Googling it before you go! It’s an immense help for following the intricate plots and understanding the characters. King Lear is showing until the 22nd of May at QPAC, then moves on to Melbourne.  Bookings at www.qldtheatreco.com.au 

Anne-Marie Peard

Anne-Marie spent many years working with amazing artists at arts festivals all over Australia. She's been a freelance arts writer for the last 10 years and teaches journalism at Monash University.

Anne-Marie Peard

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