{"id":6225,"date":"2016-04-11T18:28:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T17:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6225"},"modified":"2016-04-11T18:29:14","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T17:29:14","slug":"king-lear-the-royal-exchange-reviewed-by-annie-dickinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6225","title":{"rendered":"King Lear<\/em>, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Annie Dickinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

King Lear<\/em>, The Royal Exchange, dir. Michael Buffong, April 1 – May 7, 2016<\/p>\n

With a play like King Lear<\/em>, William Shakespeare\u2019s formidable tragedy of madness, a divided kingdom, and children turned against their parents, expectations are inevitably going to be high, and director Michael Buffong\u2019s co-production with Talawa Theatre, the Royal Exchange, and Birmingham Repertory does not disappoint. Buffong doesn\u2019t go out of his way to contemporize the play, nor does he fall into the trap of \u201cBardolatry\u201d (the idea that Shakespeare is somehow sacred, not to be tampered with). Instead, his Lear is understated and compelling, with outstanding performances from Don Warrington in the title role and a consistently excellent ensemble cast. The production combines elements of the play\u2019s pagan setting and the Renaissance context of its writing, without being recognisably of either time period, something which allows the brilliance of Shakespeare\u2019s language to speak both for itself, and to a twenty-first century audience.<\/p>\n

Whilst Warrington\u2019s Lear begins the play a stately, imposing presence, the disarray into which his divided kingdom falls is mirrored in his gradual descent into madness. Warrington switches between furiously railing and pathetic fragility: \u201cLet me not be mad, not mad\u201d he at one point pleads. This culminates in the powerful storm scenes directly before and after the interval: staged with a great deal of spectacle (and a great deal of rainwater) this is Shakespearean tragedy at its best. During the heart-breaking final scene, perhaps Shakespeare\u2019s most devastating, it felt as though the entire audience was holding their breath.<\/p>\n

Yet although Lear in this production is most definitely \u201ca man more sinned against than sinning\u201d he is not an innocent victim, something which I felt that the production was keen to emphasise. Even in the tragic final act, after Lear and Cordelia\u2019s capture and imprisonment, the audience is made keenly aware of the complex power dynamic in the parent-child relationships that are so crucial to this play. During the famous \u201cWe two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage\u201d speech, for example, Lear gradually pulls Cordelia, who he is chained to, towards him, and embraces her, something which is on one hand incredibly moving, yet simultaneously shows Lear as still attempting to maintain the control over his daughter that is arguably at the root of his tragedy.<\/p>\n

In many ways this is a play about power; it dramatizes the idea that in reality power is located in the attendants, ceremonies, and other trappings that accompany it rather than in anything intrinsic to an individual, something which Lear himself painfully realises: \u201cAllow not nature more than nature needs\u2019, he cries, and \u2018man\u2019s life\u2019s as cheap as beast\u2019s.\u201d The production explores the potential radicalism of Shakespeare\u2019s text: the shocking and brutal blinding scene demonstrates the cruelty of those in power, and is immediately counterpoised by a tender scene in which Gloucester\u2019s eyes are cleaned and bandaged by a female servant. In this play mercy and compassion are generally located with those at the bottom of society, rather than with those at the top.<\/p>\n

Buffong\u2019s production also benefits from an exceptional ensemble cast. Miltos Yerolemou (who some of you might recognise from HBO\u2019s Game of Thrones) stands out as the Fool, combining frenetic comedy with real tenderness in his relationship with Lear. Goneril (Rakie Ayola) and Regan (Debbie Korley) are fantastically treacherous, and Thomas Coombes gives a hilarious performance as Goneril\u2019s oily steward Oswald. My only disappointment came with the Edmund\/Edgar plot: Alfred Enoch\u2019s excellent Edgar is underused (the soliloquy that describes his transformation into \u201cPoor Tom\u201d is almost entirely cut), and Edmund (Fraser Ayres), while suitably villainous, in my opinion lacks the charisma to make his simultaneous seduction of both Regan and Goneril believable. These are minor points, however, in what is overall an extraordinary and powerful production of Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy.
\n 
\nAnnie Dickinson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

King Lear, The Royal Exchange, dir. Michael Buffong, April 1 – May 7, 2016 With a play like King Lear, William Shakespeare\u2019s formidable tragedy of madness, a divided kingdom, and children turned against their parents, expectations are inevitably going to be high, and director Michael Buffong\u2019s co-production with Talawa Theatre, the Royal Exchange, and Birmingham […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[283,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nKing Lear, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Annie Dickinson - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6225\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"King Lear, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Annie Dickinson - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"King Lear, The Royal Exchange, dir. 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