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SM had been wondering about going to Bath to see Northern Broadsides production of King Lear, so when the opportunity came up to buy half price tickets at the Cheltenham Everyman we leapt at the chance. Although I've seen Lear three times in the past few years SM has never seen it and with Northern Broadsides performing we were both looking forward to it.
I wasn't expecting the performance to be as good as when I'd seen Simon Russell-Beale at the National Theatre last year, but I was still expecting a good production. I was slightly concerned when I learnt from the programme that Barrie Rutter, Founder and Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides had cast himself in the lead role. By the end of the first main scene with Goneril and Regan doing their best impressions of Cinderella's ugly sisters and Edmund taking the role of pantomime villain I was having serious doubts.
Reading more of the programme during the interval was quite alarming. There was no depth to any of the characters as described there. Last time I saw Lear, Edmund was played by Sam Troughton (I know, I'm biased), and there was far more scope to his character. And that, to me, is the beauty of Shakespeare; his main characters are three dimensional, not merely villains.
Onto the second half. Lear was one paced throughout - no descent into madness, no pathos, no change. Oswald, who was brilliantly camp throughout and deserved more, gave an excellent pantomime death. Several of us laughed, thought we probably shouldn't be laughing at that point, and I, at least, decided why not, it was one of the highlights of the play.
As we walked back to the car afterwards SM, discussing part of the plot, referred to 'one of Lear's daughters, the Miss Piggy one' (Regan), which meant, if Edmund was Kermit, we had just seen the Muppets do King Lear. At least we hadn't gone all the way to Bath to do so.
I wasn't expecting the performance to be as good as when I'd seen Simon Russell-Beale at the National Theatre last year, but I was still expecting a good production. I was slightly concerned when I learnt from the programme that Barrie Rutter, Founder and Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides had cast himself in the lead role. By the end of the first main scene with Goneril and Regan doing their best impressions of Cinderella's ugly sisters and Edmund taking the role of pantomime villain I was having serious doubts.
Reading more of the programme during the interval was quite alarming. There was no depth to any of the characters as described there. Last time I saw Lear, Edmund was played by Sam Troughton (I know, I'm biased), and there was far more scope to his character. And that, to me, is the beauty of Shakespeare; his main characters are three dimensional, not merely villains.
Onto the second half. Lear was one paced throughout - no descent into madness, no pathos, no change. Oswald, who was brilliantly camp throughout and deserved more, gave an excellent pantomime death. Several of us laughed, thought we probably shouldn't be laughing at that point, and I, at least, decided why not, it was one of the highlights of the play.
As we walked back to the car afterwards SM, discussing part of the plot, referred to 'one of Lear's daughters, the Miss Piggy one' (Regan), which meant, if Edmund was Kermit, we had just seen the Muppets do King Lear. At least we hadn't gone all the way to Bath to do so.
