Just halfway through the year and
already I have seen four
King Lears,
with at least one more yet to come. Timothy West’s performance in the
title role, however, is certainly the best so far of 2016 and some way
beyond.
At 81, West is a year older than Lear himself. He embodies both the
increasing physical frailty of old age and the continuing denial of and
frustration with it. Moreover, whatever the state of the body, the mind
and heart glow undimmed. His rage at Cordelia’s supposed ingratitude is
immediate and fierce, but still shot through with regret: when he
disowns her and tells the king of France, “we/ Have no such daughter,
nor shall ever see/ That face of hers again”, his voice catches just a
little on the last words. Similar notes are sounded on two or three
subsequent occasions; this Lear grows mad not least because he has
always known how foolish he has
been.
All the younger roles in Tom Morris’s modern-dress production are taken
by students from Bristol Old Vic’s associated Theatre School. Some of
them also get to play with some of Morris’s dearest toys – and I say
this in rapt appreciation. In the first phase of the theatre’s ongoing
renovation under Morris, a number of storm machines were found dating
back to the theatre’s 18th-century origins; the storm scene here uses
the original Thunder Run in the theatre’s roofspace as well as a
quartet of wind and rain machines operated onstage by students.
It’s no wonder here that Lear loves his Fool so much. Stephanie Cole,
with a coxcomb attached to her knitted woolly hat, is clearly
affectionate when twitting Lear for his folly, and during his madness
she pretty unambiguously mothers him. David Hargreaves, seen here last
year in
The Crucible, makes a
dignified Gloucester. As Goneril, student Jessica Temple is
appealingly, chillingly blithe in her treachery. And West’s Lear, in
the final phase which is always the most moving, is simply masterly,
injecting a wealth of distinct nuance into each repeated “Howl” or
“Never” before suddenly dying as it seems in mid-sentence. Seldom, even
at this moment in offstage Britain, has the division of the kingdom
been so heartbreaking.
Written for the Financial
Times.