Shakespeare

King Lear - Unity Theatre

'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players' is a pretty common notion in Shakespeare, but Russell Aitken's production of 'Lear' was the first time I had been emotionally caught up in such a proposition. Intellectually, I was amazed at the imaginative use of available resources - place, people and play.

Led by the brilliant performance of Barry Emslie as Edmund, the actors created a sense of ambiguity so that we are never sure how many levels of reality the play covers. And this was strengthened by the palpable unity of purpose among all the actors. Everybody had their jobs, even if it was to hold a banner, and performed them with competence and economy.

This sense of totality, of unity, combined with the box-like Unity Theatre building to create a feeling of looking in on an incredibly smoothly working machine, but rather as a peeping-tom (mad tom?) than a participator.

This was particularly accentuated in the scene where Edgar flees from his father's house. The stage was in darkness while two dimly visible figures each shone a spotlight into the audience.

I hesitate to give it a name, but the feeling created was electrifying. We were on the outside looking in, we were hunted men abstracted from our own destinies. But then isn't all life like that?

The only 'Lear' I know is the Russian film, so I suppose I came to the play with its images in my head. But both Terence Nonweiler's Lear and Barny Nonweiler's Fool are very different from those of the film - more incisive, more bitter, and a lot less presupposing.

Life is not nicely ordered and dramatic, but harsh, bitter and petty. The whole production echoes this and produces a sense of microcosmic reality, with a tightness and economy that makes the play succeed in the cramped confines of Unity Theatre building.

There is some brilliant staging, particularly of the murders. They were the first 'stage deaths' that ever shocked me murdered people do not die in comfortable positions.

Janet Williamson's set is quite amazing - the backdrop in itself is a work of art. She has managed to obtain incredible mobility and fluidity from very basic materials - the fixed backdrop, two sets of steps, and some cloth drapes.

By simply rearranging these, totally new feelings are created. And Alisdair Turner's lighting combines well with some exciting use of light and shadow.

The production has a lot loaded against it - the time (3½ hours). Unity Theatre building, and most expecially the audience. We seem to approach Shakespeare totally differently from the way we approach any other playwright - either with an intellectual reverence bordering on the obscene, or a desire to scoff at what others worship.

But despite this, Russell Aitken (along with everybody else) has produced something that is a gut reaction as well as an intellectual response, to Shakespeare.

— Gerard Couper