Under Development
Directed
by Alan SmithDUNNING CAPTURES THE TORMENT OF LEAR IN CENTENARY SPECIAL
There's a lot at stake with this latest outing from the Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company and there's not much the troupe can do about it.
The weight of expectation comes from the fact that King Lear marks the centenary celebrations for the society that first performed at the Railway Institute and the Temperance Hall in Derby at the early part of the last century.
Well, if the ghosts of those past performers are looking on, then I'm sure that their chests are puffed with pride as, under the direction of Alan Smith, the city is blessed with another Bard master class.
Sex, power, corruption, insanity and violence - it's all on show as an ageing and an increasingly deranged monarch tries to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, only to have his ideas derailed after his favoured sibling, Cordelia (Lisa Kelly), plays against his ego.
She is immediately sent to marry the King of France and matters are complicated by the wooing of Lear's other daughters, Goneril (Stephanie Collyer) and Regan (Lorna Harrington), by Edmund (Chris Sparham), the illegitimate son of the Duke of Gloucester, keen to get his hands on the land of his father.
Last year's Guildhall production of Richard III was dominated by Ben Adams in the lead.
Likewise, this play stands or falls on the portrayal of Lear.
Steve Dunning, in his first leading man role, does the job admirably, evoking just the right amount of sympathy for his character on his final realisation of what has happened to his world and his sanity.
Simply staged, moodily lit, superbly acted and edited to get straight to the story, this production cements the standing of the Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company.
They can deservedly take the applause from the pavilion of 100 not out - and more to come.
Andy Potter
Derby Evening Telegraph