Waiting on a periphery of King Lear's gorgeous, chandeliered mahogany great room, his daughters are understandably nervous. Doors fling open, and spotlights focus on a huge desk atop a rich Oriental rug, onto which the King strides. Before he makes his all-important televised abdication, King Lear elicits all-important flattery from them and promises he and his knights will have a place to cavort and carouse. Blonde-in-black Regan performs her camera-ready "love speech," followed by look-alike Goneril, assuming a side of the desk and happily topping her sister's act. Cordelia, almost crying, still sits on the sidelines. Her father blurts out (as Oliver Ford-Davies is wont to do throughout) his expectations: She'll say she loves him most, will give him most and get most from him." NOT!
Rash Lear is soon sending her off dowry-less to France, exiling his faithful minister Kent, and setting himself up for legendary filial ingratitude. Lear has no sooner stormed out than the evil sisters begin snarling about his old age. With all on and off the air overheard by Gloucester's bastard son, Edmund (attractive James Frain, playing an opportunist rather than a stereotypical baddie), sitting unseen at a side fireplace, it won't be long before his father, too, will suffer misfortune. In that, he'll be accompanied by his disguised legitimate son (agile Tom Hollander). Anthony O'Donnell's adequate Fool will similarly guide unaccomodated Lear (Ford-Davies at his best).
All the parallels stand out in a production that concentrates on human and familial relationships, as well as the characters' relationships to the kingdom. Lear seems petty enough and so determined to keep his boisterous knights, one almost feels his evil daughters may at first have a point in urging a budget. When Goneril complains about Lear's men roughing up her manservant, he yanks a lamp and cord out of the wall, slams it to break a mirror, and spits on her. Small wonder the Fool had been sitting in his desk chair!
Paul Jesson's strong Kent (head shaved as a disguise) wins more sympathy when he's put in the stocks, as does David Ryall's credulous Gloucester. His blinding is effective but unsensational.
What is sensational are the set and special effects. The handsome room implodes. The storm rages into it (though Lear railing on the heath remains an outsider as water pummels him). Rain soaks everything in and outside the caved-in walls. Edgar uses a desk kneehole for shelter, while the fool goes down between warped floor boards. Only the mantelplace holds dryness, warmth, and enough firelight for meetings of the axis of evil" -- Goneril, Edmund, Regan.
In Part II, backstage is fully visible, a central window looking out on dark greenery from which Cordelia will look for her father. A ladder serves as stairs. Furnishings stacked high in a pile upstage left become a place for Gloucester to wait out the battle in which Lear will be taken. A movable panel reveals Goneril and Regan dead in each other's arms (an innovation). Theatricality is all! If this production is remembered, it will be for these effects.
