A lack of depth is play's real tragedy

A touching meeting between father and daughter: Lear (Michael Pennington) sees Cordelia (Beth Cooke) again

King Lear

Opera House, Manchester, to Saturday

I'VE been watching Michael Pennington on stage on his rare travels north for almost four decades and he's always an actor of great nuance and detail, commanding attention whenever he is on stage.

But it's fair to say Max Webster's production of Shakespeare's great tragedy sees Pennington at his best only when he is allowed to be.

An actor at the centre of this great play needs absolutely top class people around him, but in some respects Webster has pushed the focus more on to the younger characters, leaving equally tragic stories like that of the blinded Gloucester (Pip Donaghy) to fend pretty much for themselves.

This would be all right if what he did with the younger characters was interesting or new, but in fact in most respects this is a rather traditional, rather mundane reading: without Pennington at its helm, it would be pretty average indeed.

Touching

The evening reaches its heights in touching scenes between Lear and Gloucester when they meet again in the final stages of the play, and as Lear drags his dead daughter into the room as the last tragedy plays out.

This Lear, then - unlike the very powerful one seen at Manchester's Royal Exchange recently - lacks depth and detail, and certainly lacks a sense of occasion.

Some of the minor actors are decidedly minor and, perhaps no fault of their own, manage to drag down the production's overall quality.

This isn't all Webster's fault: the production was due to have been directed by actor-director Philip Franks, who fell ill after picking his cast and designs and couldn't continue.

Webster stepped into the middle of the uneven group and slightly oppressive set (heavy "concrete" walls, which remain during the heath scenes) and has made the best of it, for what this background is worth.

Pennington remains great value throughout: angry at the start, pathetic as his mind fails and finally immensely saddening as those younger characters get their comeuppance or scant reward.