Many
thanks for assistance with set building and costumes to: Kathy
Sandys, Sarah Pilling, David
Taylor and Mike Crowley.
Surrey
Comet
No holds were barred at the Duke's Head,
Richmond this week
as Sharers and Hirelings put on
a challenging production of
Shakespeare's King
Lear. In slightly claustrophobic conditions
above the pub, the spitting sarcasm of Lear's
Fool, the grotesque
arrogance and innate stupidity of the ruler himself, and the pure
evil of daughters Goneril and Regan,
hit home hard. Dermot
O'Brien's direction allows little time for the audience
to catch its breath, as scene follows scene at breakneck pace. It
is a testament to the team that so few props are needed in what
is often said to be the most difficult of the Bard's works to
stage. It is an uncompromising show. No concessions
are made to modern dress, the company does not believe in it,
and the play is stripped to its bare essentials to emphasise
the strong character clashes. Kenneth
McClellan, in the
lead role, is convincingly vague and vain at the outset, and
his descent into madness and eventual enlightenment is truly
tear-jerking. Special mention must also be made of his
loyal ally the Fool, David Glennie,
who displays remarkable insight into the complex lines... And Tony
Morton as Kent deserves recognition
for a cameo role which brings John Cleese-like comedy to a role
rarely given sufficient prominence. It's a hard-hitting
show which runs the gamut of emotions yet is never disjointed.
Richmond and Twickenham Times
Referees of the Guinness Book of Records should hurry to the
Duke's Head in Richmond to see
the spirited 73-years-old Kenneth
McClellan playing [King Lear]
in a swift, seamless performance, probably the oldest to have
tackled the part on an open stage. Traditionally
an old man's role, the irony is that elderly actors normally
cannot manage to carry the corpse of Cordelia in
the climactic death scene. When Olivier played
his television Lear at 76, Cordelia was
suspended on fine wires. But
the doughty
McClellan needs no such aids, and
over a long, lively evening gives no impression of dreading his
final ordeal. Ideal
for those studying the text, Dermot O'Brien's
strong, simple production is set in a period of cross-gartered
khaki socks. There
is also much to enjoy for general theatregoers including Tony
Morton's scene stealing Kent,
a Thatcheresque Regan and vinegary
Goneril and a really scary knife fight
between Edgar and his
brother Edmund.
City Limits
Utterly Classical... deserves a wider audience.
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