Theatre
King Lear, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow
Neil Cooper
Three stars
The knives are out from the off in Mark Saunders' all-female version of Shakespeare's inter-familial political tragedy, performed by students from RCS' BA acting course. With Lear's throne set atop a chess-board flooring, as he courts the favour of each of his three daughters in full view of his extended entourage, he inadvertently sets in motion a series of physical, political and emotional conflicts which will rip apart an already divided kingdom.
Step forward Claire Winkleblack's Edmund, a floppy-haired dandy who takes advantage of both Goneril and Regan, adding an erotic frisson to the ongoing round of corruption and double bluffs that fuel the power-crazed schemes of each. Out in the wilds,meanwhile, is where Lear, Edmund's brother Edgar and their blinded father find out what really matters.
While Kristin Morris' Lear is a wild-haired demagogue surrounded by a tunic-clad court, Francesca Isherwood's Goneril and Tori Burgess' Regan are a pair of fur-clad power-dressing careerists. Rosa French's Cordelia pursues a more free-spirited path, with French also doubling up as a white-coated clown doctor Fool. When Davina Leonard's Kent dons flat cap and dour demeanour as he swears loyalty to the King, the effect of all this falls somewhere between Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey.
Burgess' Regan is a particularly nasty piece of work in this respect as she forms a grisly double act with Isherwood's Goneril. While Morris invests Lear with measured gravitas, French keeps a cool head as Cordelia, before she too is doomed. With the Chandler Studio stripped back to reveal the full expanse of what is usually seen as a more intimate space, this is a fascinating cross-dressing exploitation of Shakespeare's under-explored feminine side.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article