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Lear Alone
Old Joint Stock
*** PERFORMED by Bob Young and directed by
Frank Bramwell, Lear Alone is a one man account of one of Shakespeare’s
most famous roles and the journey of Lear’s life. The production gives an insight into the inner thoughts and feelings of King Lear, exploring the role from the perspective of both an audience and an actor and goes into the heart of the character. Together, actor and audience decipher who King Lear was as we watch the changes in his mind and extreme shifts in persona. Performed entirely by Bob Young who impressively
stepped in last minute to play the role, due to the original actor
withdrawing because of illness. Young performed script The performance was sometimes obscure in places
as only the part of Lear was performed, naturally it seemed as if the
play jumped from scene to scene. With no other characters to aid any
emotional responses, the responsibility was placed entirely upon Young
to find the emotive patterns within the character. The audience were helped to follow the plot with
a voiceover by Penelope Freeman who provided the parts of Goneril, Regan
and Imogen. Arguably the most important character, the one with the
closest relationship to Lear was absent. Cordelia had no voice and was
not to be seen. Instead, there were only allusions to her presence with
Young addressing her in an imaginary space on stage and holding a doll
to represent her in the death scene. By taking away other character’s in
the play and leaving us with Lear alone, we see the madness and torture
of his soul come to light in a unique and pure way. A tree was used upstage that hung doll-like
figures in representation of other characters that Lear referred to. The
fool was hanged and Cordelia constantly hung limp in a noose from a
branch, reminding us of the tragic themes in Shakespeare’s work and the
riddled regret of the King as his demise takes place. The space was intimate and provided a safe place
for Young to present us with his work. Although the concept of
Bramwell’s mind did not shine through entirely within Young’s
performance, with it being notably slow and the overall emotional
journey of Lear was unclear and monotone. But Young has taken on a great responsibility to
perform the grand and complex role at extremely short notice, and to
perform alone in an intimate space was highly applauded and clearly
respected by every audience member. Frank Bramwell directed well using all the space
that the Old Joint Stock Theatre provides. We were seated behind an arch
of candles on the floor and three boxes were used on stage to simulate a
space filled with people, even though none were there. Bramwell made
excellent use of the dark and eerie atmosphere with slow music as a
background to Lear’s speeches throughout the production. General
blocking and the ideas behind Lear’s actions were well thought out, but
the piece lacked an emotional connection that the audience failed to
unite with. Even though the production was an hour long, the
essence of the performance could be worked upon. Lear has many colours
and extremities and it the journey to insanity was not captured as fully
as one hoped. As a reading, Young was insightful and interesting, but
the emotional backstory needed to shine through. To 31-07-15. Elizabeth Halpin
29-07-15
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in hand but the part was mostly memorised at this point, impressive for
a first night performance.