Movie review: King Lear

Derek Jacobi as King Lear. Photo / Supplied

The titanic Shakespearean tragedy that is arguably the greatest work of English literature gets a thrilling and compellingly delicate reading in this production, the latest release in the excellent NT Live series.

It's staged not at the National's South Bank HQ but in the tiny (250-seat) Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden, a venue of almost terrifying intimacy, and as a result the camerawork is more restrained than in previous shows. The audiences, at the Donmar and in all the participating cinemas for the February 3 live broadcast, had to endure a technical glitch which sent the actors backstage for fully seven minutes, but there's no perceptible break in the rhythm of the recorded version playing here.

The axiomatically unplayable Lear has been given some pretty ropey treatment over the years - I loathed Sir Ian McKellen's version showy mugging in the 2007 RSC production in Auckland - but Jacobi and director Grandage have teamed up to create a Lear for the ages, an interpretation to enthral aficionados while never being less than completely accessible for those who hated Shakespeare at school.

Impressively, its touch is very light. The Independent dismissed it as too polite, but its genius is that it relies on the metaphysical content rather than portentous, tempestuous staging for its emotional impact. The storm scene ("Blow winds and crack your cheeks!") begins in a hoarse whisper that is far more dreadful than shouting.

And anyway Jacobi knows when to let rip. He follows his vow not to weep although "I have full cause of weeping" by doubling up and emitting a piercing scream. And I have never seen the beginnings of his descent into madness depicted with such heartbreakingly panicky puzzlement.

All secondary roles are brilliantly handled although Ron Cook's nuanced and doleful Fool is inspired, and Goneril (McKee) and Regan (Mitchell) mesmerisingly sexy.

It's a magnificently coherent arc the play describes: the early division of the kingdom has none of the menace that is traditional; rather Lear is a scrappy, monstrously manipulative eccentric and by dint of tiny, sometimes distracting textual cuts, we are hauled breathlessly through the scene. But then, without ever dragging, it mellows out and on a bare stage - I counted three props, excluding weapons - conjure pure theatrical magic. It's the finest production of a Shakespearean tragedy I have ever seen and, at last, a film to put the Brook/Scofield version and Grigori Kozintsev's 1969 masterpiece in the shade.

LOWDOWN
Stars: 5/5
Cast: Derek Jacobi, Ron Cook, Paul Jesson, Gina McKee, Justine Mitchell, Pippa Bennett-Warner
Director: Michael Grandage
Running time: 185 mins including interval
Rating: Exempt
Verdict: As good as it gets

-TimeOut