Simple staging delivers

KING LEAR

Royal Exchange, Manchester (to May 7)

KING LEAR seems a fairly simple play on the surface — king gives away his kingdom, comes to regret it, much unpleasantness all round — but as with most of Shakespeare, there’s almost too much going on to get everything in a production right.

So sensibly, director Michael Buffong has dispensed with supposed “relevance” and contemporary gimmicks for this Talawa/Royal Exchange production and has gone straight for the original setting in the Middle Ages.

And there’s a simple set which is barely more than a raised ring around the stage — though falling rain and smoke in the storm scene are particularly effective, turning the stage into a muddy foot bath.

True, the fur-collared leather costumes are pretty impressive and the callous daughters Goneril (Rakie Ayola) and Regan (Debbie Korley) have extraordinary hairstyles, but basically the play is straight, with endless possibilities for detail well exploited throughout.

What makes this production rather special is that having given himself every advantage, Buffong delivers.

There’s an inch-perfect cast headed by Don Warrington as Lear, allowed to stretch himself in the role as never before partly because the support cast is so strong.

It’s all about balance: Philip Whitchurch is a tremendously likeable and much-abused Gloucester, while Goneril and Regan are right in there when the eye-gouging starts (the Gloucester blinding scene is particularly gruesome).

Edmund (Fraser Ayres) is a bit slimy while his brother Edgar (Alfred Enoch) is virtuous beyond the call of duty, and so on.

And of course the theme is also age and experience versus youthful desire for power, powerful women willing to grab what they want from whoever has it, and much more.

While they are cleverly negotiating these ideas, the cast manages to be all too human and believable.

I’ve never had much time for Don Warrington, but in this he performs heroically, giving Lear a rightfully indignant tone when he learns of his daughters’ deception and a softer one for his “mad” scenes.

There’s not a weak link in the cast and some are outstanding: the three and a half hours flies by.