Jack Studio Theatre – 19 to 30 March
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
Yard Players’ production of King Lear takes Shakespeare’s long, meandering tragedy and shapes it into a (relatively) fast-paced and thoroughly engaging story.
The tone of the play is set beautifully as the Fool manoeuvres each character onstage for the first scene, setting a tableau that signals the loyalties of each group before a word is uttered. Alan Booty’s Lear is a suitably commanding presence, and his descent into madness as he is abandoned is handled deftly and delicately. Zara Banks and Fleur de Wit are hugely impressive as Lear’s faithless daughters Goneril and Regan, and their husbands Albany (Benjamin May) and Cornwall (David Sayers) are played as weaker male shadows of the ruthless women. Recasting Edmund as Ada (Evangeline Beaven) is a masterstroke, making Gloucester’s indifference towards his bastard child seem even more cruel. Beaven is both sympathetic and repulsive as she plots her rise to power, and her non-verbal work is full of wit, in stark contrast to the initially rather wet Edgar (Daniel McCaully).
With no scenery and minimum props, the setting of each scene is scrawled in chalk on the black wall, using names of pubs, or simply “dark”, but this works brilliantly keeping the story flowing without the need for long scene breaks. The sense of injustice and the rising chaos as Lear’s authority is diminished are captured nicely, and the loyalty and love shown Lear by his true friends is never over simplified and cloying. The play’s most infamous scene, where poor Gloucester loses his eyes, is staged imaginatively, with groans from the audience as they realised that it was actually going to happen, and nervous gasps and giggles as the scene unfolded. There are a lot of laughs in this production as the cast and director James Eley bring the wicked and gleeful wordplay to the fore and throw masterful side eye to the audience.
King Lear is not my favourite Shakespeare play – I usually nod off – but Yard Players breathe new life into the old dog and have created an intelligent, invigorating and witty production that deserves a wider audience.