A map of the British Isles cracks into pieces. In front of it two tribes jostle for supremacy: the old and the young. In Tom Morris’s staging, King Lear looks newly and bitingly prophetic. Here is Shakespeare seeing hostility between parents and children turning into generations of political conflict. Here he is announcing the break-up of Britain. And misery. “Then shall the realm of Albion come to great confusion.”
No tweaking of the text is needed to make this clear. The play begins with the resignation of the old. It ends with a wan statement by the new blood. Morris’s brilliant new light makes this division the cruel centre of the play. He does it by casting – a manoeuvre which will actually do something to help, not just verbally lament, the plight of young actors. Veteran David Hargreaves is a forceful Gloucester, Timothy West is Lear and Stephanie Cole plays the Fool. All other parts are taken by Bristol Old Vic theatre students.
The central idea is galvanic. The overall result is patchy, shot through with good moments. Song is woven through the broken action. West is a truly thoughtful Lear. Not mighty but beautifully detailed, and affectionate. He makes you believe – which most Lears don’t – that he might care about Cordelia for herself. Not simply because she gives him a reason to express himself.
What is lovely about Cole’s Fool is her lack of archness, even though wearing a woolly hat and patchwork jacket. She is Lear’s coeval. When they sit together, mulling things over, they might be two pensioners on a park bench. She is comforting, slightly motherly, appearing at the beginning alongside Cordelia as if to shelter her. And because she delivers the lines without flammery and knowingness – just an occasional elegant flick of the wrist – they are actually funny.
Will Kelly is a strong Kent and Tom Byrne a really good, flexible Edgar – though wouldn’t it be lovely if some day the truest figure in the play was not seen to be the best sort of public schoolboy. Jac Baylis, slippy and camp as Oswald, steals the scene. Poppy Pedder’s Cordelia is clever. Her sisters are so vibrant that you wonder Lear held on to his throne so long.
