The True History of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters, Belvoir St Theatre, Upstairs Theatre, 15 Nov-4 Jan

 

Belvoir hasn't done a Shakespeare since "Twelfth Night" in 2016 but it certainly brings it back with a vengeance this time - three hours and 15 minutes with two intermissions, largely showing grand bloody tragedy. The production could be described as minimalist (bare stage, though it's actually built up from the standard stage height to such an extent that my row B seat was right up front) and it boasts a large cast - 13 actors plus 3 musicians. The text is, as that length suggests, largely uncut though I spotted some changes in scene order to keep the momentum up after the second intermission. 

Eamon Flack directs a pacey production often played right in your face (Cordelia stood right next to me during the opening scene so I got a pretty close view of Colin Friel's wrath - using very little more than a chalk circle drawn on the floor. It is an approach that could feel like it's a production that's never really left the rehearsal room (particularly with the cast in modern dress that mostly could be their regular street clothes, excluding Peter Carroll's tropicana gear as the Fool). Still, it's a production that sustains the length and the concept - few bells and whistles exluding the musicians, the addition of strobe lights for the storm and a lot of stage blood. 

Colin Friels leads with considerable authority as Lear at the top, delivering the right level of cockiness up until the point when it becomes clear how much power he has given away and how ruthlessly his daughters are using what he's given them. A lot of Lears I've seen have played a lot of pathos early on and here it's held in reserve until after the storm - this is a Lear who rages and pushes against until he can't any more. Joining him as the three daughters are a haughty, power-greedy Charlotte Friels as Goneril, a blood-lustful Jana Zvedeniuk as Regan and a gentle Ahunim Abebe as Cordelia, a dyamic Alison Whyte as the gender-shifted Countess of Gloucester (meaning the play goes from a father and three daughters paralleled by a father with two sons to a parallell of a mother with two sons - it shows off her power and her vulnerability even moreso when violence comes against her), a gleefully twisted Raj Labade with a lust for power ever-present as Edmund, a hauntingly gentle Tom Conroy as Edgar, a stoicly supportive Brandon McLelland as Kent, a delightfully oddball Peter Carroll as the Fool, a foppish and over-his-head James Fraser as Oswald and a haughty Charles Wu as Cornwall. 

For a play that's as long as this to hold my attention for its full length, there's got to be something special in here. And this is Shakespeare with a strong beating driving energy to it - no bells, no whistles, just a strong pulse and a cast let loose on a strong text.