A reworking of King Lear, spliced with legends of Norse gods, set in a modern fishing community and written in blank verse may sound like a pretty bizarre kettle of fish. But Ben Benison’s 2008 play, as revived by Barrie Rutter, turns out to be an action-packed, laughter-rousing drama that convincingly sets the lives of the members of a contemporary working family within the dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy.
Jack Lear (Rutter) is a trawlerman and single father with three daughters. He wanted sons, so raised his girls to be as boys and to work aboard ship, deckies among deckies. Sea, rocks, wind and ice have turned Jack to pagan gods; he trains daughters to be “Dane men”. The opening scene sees Morgana (Nicola Sanderson) and Freda (Sarah Naughton) spar with Viking swords in front of unfurled sails (in Kate Unwin’s design, these later serve as screens for projections of waves in a vivid storm-at-sea scene).
Now, niggardly Jack, grown old, decides to divide his boats and goods among these three “men-daughters”, provided they promise to take him in, not leave him “scrapped with other zombies in a nursing home”. When the youngest, the favourite, Victoria (Olivia Onyehara), “cannot promise”, Jack disinherits her. Her sisters turn to local lawyer and disco lothario, Edmund (Andy Cryer), to secure their share.
The actors relish Benison’s heightened language and use it to full effect. By skilfully playing on contrasts between formal speech and rough demotic, they open up insights into their larger-than-life characters’ lives and situations and reel the audience into their world. A capella folk songs and atmospheric live percussion composed by Eliza Carthy enhance the drama’s blurring of boundaries between real and mythic. Trawlerman or king, life can be tragic.
• Jack Lear is at Hull Truck theatre, Hull, until 2 February, then touring
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