King Lear, viewed by many as Shakespeare’s most epic, tragic and human play, comes to Cambridge’s Arts Theatre this month with all its emotional power intact.
Michael Pennington, a two-time Olivier Award nominee, stars as the king in a Royal & Derngate Northampton production.
The ageing king, a tyrant perhaps aware he’s losing his faculties, decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters. Regan and Goneril feel they deserve more and secretly feel their father is weak; the youngest, Cordelia, is not interested in having to prove her affection for her father in order to gain any part of the kingdom. Her share is divided between her sisters after Lear dislikes her honest, but blunt answers.
The king, at turns mocked by his fool and deceived by his eldest daughters, descends into madness. Driven from his home, he battles a great storm alone as his retinue of 100 knights have been dissolved by Regan and Goneril. Yet within madness, he finds reason, after betrayal he finds loyalty, and through his suffering, ultimately a better world emerges.
Pennington heads a cast of 14 distinguished actors in Max Webster’s epic new interpretation of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy.
Performances, which last three hours including an interval, are at 7.45pm, 20 to 25 June, plus 2.30pm matinees on 23 and 25 June.
