King Lear
Directed by David Ritchie
New Theatre, King St, Newtown
Reviewed by Helen Jarvis

Sydney's New Theatre continues its long tradition of good performances of classics to complement its contemporary, Australian and progressive repertoire.

Director David Ritchie serves up a racy production on a spare stage with only a wooden platform across the entire width, into whose steps and hollows characters sometimes disappear. The dress is from an indeterminate time, but the bodyguards have a distinctively Third World look about them, appropriate for the director's intention of suggesting “a culture analogous to the one that produced the play -- still partly feudal, patriarchal and incipiently violent.”

Frank McNamara, currently president of New Theatre, gives a moving performance of Lear and his descent into madness as he discovers how little respect and love he receives after he has given away his kingdom. “Father, King and God come toppling down, shattering as they fall traditional ideas of authority, identity and sanity. We are given a grotesque and tragic vision of a world devoid of justice -- human, divine and poetic”, says Ritchie.

His two elder daughters, Regan and Goneril (Gertraud Ingeborg and Tricia Youlden) are convincing in their cynicism and deception -- Regan's foreign accent giving an unusual dimension to the character.

Also memorable is James Hutchinson's portrayal of the villainous Edmund.

This is the second production of King Lear in Sydney at this time, and the contrast between the two is quite fascinating. While the Sydney Theatre Company emphasises the coldness and sharp edge of the tragedy, New Theatre draws out the action and intrigue, and the audience feels intimately involved.

This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page.
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