05/04/2014

King Lear

Bell Shakespeare, 2010
Photo by Wendy McDougall for Bell Shakespeare.
Bell Shakespeare’s 20th anniversary production was a sparse staging of this popular tragedy. Beautifully minimalist, John Bell’s Lear raged with all the futility of man against the storm as the revolving platform spun and spun and spun, as Bree van Reyk’s percussion whipped and buffeted them, stripping Lear and his Fool to their cores. While it didn’t quite hit the heights expected of it, it was nonetheless a poetic and strong production, suitably majestic as befitted the occasion.