King Lear - Review

National Theatre, London


****

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Sam Mendes

Simon Russell Beale and Olivia Vinall

There’s a vogue at the National to thrust Shakespeare’s work into the modern era and with a nod to thrift, the military garb from the South Bank’s recent Othello is coldly furnishing forth the costume requirements of Simon Russell Beale’s King Lear. Indeed, as the closing act conflict plays out, the Dover denouement is often interrupted by the sound effect of jet fighters screaming overhead. It’s a leap in time that doesn’t always sit easily with a tale so firmly rooted in pre-Saxon history.

In an image that highlights the play's thematic plea for Lear to “see clearly”, the programme cover features a half-face close up of the bearded, brooding, Beale. The reality, at least for much of the first half is a very different King. Barely thirteen years since he delivered his career defining Hamlet, Russell Beale’s Lear, stooped and Stalin-like, scuttles around the stage suggesting a hybrid of Captain Birds Eye and Del Boy’s Uncle Albert. There are moments when his overly clipped delivery is eased off, but some noticeable early episodes of agony are squandered. His curse of sterility upon Goneril, arguably one of the most harrowing speeches written, falls short of the mark and that a few of the audience chuckled during Lear’s “O reason not the need” speech further suggests that the production still needs some fine tuning. After the break, Russell Beale excels and the moment late on, as Olivia Vinall’s Cordelia wakes him in his hospital bed is exquisite.

There is some outstanding company work on offer. Stanley Townsend’s Kent offers an energetic brute of loyalty to the King whilst Anna Maxwell Martin’s vitriolic Regan positively sizzles, first as the uncaring daughter and later as a steamily seductive merry widow. Sam Troughton’s bastard Edmund is as dark a baddy as he should be and Tom Brooke’s Edgar is an eloquent and touching interpretation of a complex soul, bravely performed nude through much of the Mad Tom storm sequence. As the Fool, Adrian Scarborough gives an intelligent interpretation to another of Shakespeare’s enigmatic characters and Mendes offers his own explanation to that Bard-Cluedo question: What exactly happens to the Fool? Well in this show he is brutally murdered: by Lear; in a bathtub; bloodily battered with the lead piping. Perhaps the standout performance amongst Lear’s court is that of Stephen Boxer’s Gloucester. Boxer effortlessly coaxes the beauty from his verse and rarely has his character’s confession “I stumbled when I saw” sounded so poignant. If Shakespeare knew that Gloucester’s blinding would entertain a blood-thirsty Elizabethan audience, so too does movie-maker Mendes who with an eye for a good visual and perhaps a nod to Quentin Tarantino, updates the hapless man's torture having him first waterboarded during the “wherefore to Dover?” interrogation before the required eye-gouging. In this production administered with a corkscrew, natch.

The production is unquestionably a brilliant King Lear, even if not one of the finest. It’s a fresh interpretation of the classic tale and its extremes of good, evil and the redemptive blessing of forgiveness prove as relevant today as ever. It’s a version that will be talked about for years and if you are lucky enough to acquire a ticket, (they are like gold dust) it is an evening very well spent.

Booking through to May 2014

Othello

National Theatre, London

*****

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Nicholas Hytner

Rory Kinnear and Adrian Lester

Nicholas Hytner's Othello in the National Theatre's Olivier auditorium is a disturbing and brilliant reworking of the tale, setting it squarely amongst the complexities of our modern era. However, in modernising the fable and notwithstanding two outstanding performances, Hytner has highlighted how morally flawed the work is. A play famed for its take on deception and jealousy, this 2013 treatment throws the closing act's charnel-house of uxoricide, be it casual or passionate, into the spotlight of modern day unacceptability.

We first meet Iago, in civvies, outside a Venetian inn. The impression he creates of callous contemptuous envy of the Moor, with a heavy racist twist, could sadly be straight out of 1990s Eltham whilst the contempt that Brabantio, Desdemona's father shows to his new son in law, similarly drips racist vitriol that has a chillingly contemporary familiarity.

General Othello and his wife are posted to Cyprus where he is to command the fortress against Turkish attack. Under Vicki Mortimer's astonishing design, as the Venetian facades  fly up they reveal the full, gaping magnificent reach of the Olivier stage transformed into the island outpost. Barrack rooms are fabricated from steel containers, blast proof walls peppered with sterile fluorescent bulkhead lights are everywhere whilst around the perimeter a guarded wall serves as much to trap and foment trouble within its confines, as to keep marauding Turks out. If suburbia inspired the director's view of the civilian mainland, then it is Camp Bastion or maybe even Abbotabad that has provided the vision for this hellish garrison.

Rory Kinnear's Iago is a horribly plausible rendition of modern evil. Cynical and jealous, despising of his General and himself lusting for Desdemona, his is no pantomime villain. With words and manner that drip envy and contempt, Kinnear's exploration of the ordinariness of evil is a masterclass in classlessness.

As one of the leading black actors of his generation and working amidst a canon of literature that displays a shameful paucity of classic roles written for a black performer, one assumes that over the years Adrian Lester has been flooded with offers to play The Moor. If he has chosen to bide his time until the "right one" came along, he has chosen wisely . Under Hytner's direction and with Kinnear as his malevolent on-stage sparring partner, Lester's performance defines a nobility, that like the vapour trail of a rogue missile tumbling destructively out of control from the sky, is so horribly abused and manipulated by Iago.

Never forget however that both Iago and Othello are ultimately no more than wife-murderers who both wilfully kill their spouses. But because Othello was deceived about his wife's infidelity the murder that he commits, so swiftly followed followed by his guilt-ridden suicide, are seen as the actions of a tragic hero. This tacit acceptance that his jealousy-motivated murder of Desdemona is "acceptable" suggests that the violence of men against women that underlies this tale, is far more sinister than the age old textbook issues pertaining to race,  jealousy or what makes for a good General. There is almost an unwritten suggestion that if Desdemona had been unfaithful that Othello would have been justified in murdering her. This classic tale has such a mysogynist root that it arguably deserves outright condemnation, wherever it is staged.

Modernising the story puts Desdemona (Olivia Vinall in this production) in an invidious position. Shakespeare's words were penned long before women's emancipation, so whilst Hytner may have placed his Desdemona amongst a mess-room full of beer drinking squaddies and jealous violent men (gender traits that are sadly timeless), her response to Othello's accusations are out of kilter with our expectations of a modern woman. And that she finally tries to shield Othello from his guilt with her last dying breaths, proclaiming his innocence, is as sickeningly compliant with a patriarchal society as it is intended to be heartbreakingly romantic. Would a modern woman pardon her brutal murderer? It's actually a revolting question to even consider. To see and to celebrate a play that ends with two husbands murdering their wives in cold blood surely has to trouble our collective conscience.

Notwithstanding the play's amorality, rarely have two actors so magnificently embodied this infernal double-act . These performances will be discussed for years to come and for lovers of either Shakespeare or simply outstanding stagecraft, the production is unquestionably unmissable.

The play is sold out in the National Theatre repertory until 5 October 2013

Making the Unmissable unmissable, those wonderful people at NTLive will be broadcasting Othello live to cinemas across the country and also globally, on and from 26 September 2013 . The broadcast production values of the NTLive series are world class, bringing outstanding theatre to within not only the geographical reach, but also the budget, of all.

NTLive booking details can be found here.