King Lear @ The Pump House 13/5/21

So far 2021 has been a tragic year for theatre, and it seems fitting that one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies should be spearheading its return. It's also unsurprising that the innovative Watford Pump House, an organisation that managed to host a fringe festival in the midst of a global pandemic, is once again leading the charge.

Jim Markey's triumphant Lear is no green world king but rather the blustering boss of a property development empire. We open in a conference room, and the business-like setting offers a new resonance to some of Lear's lines. While 'Come not between the dragon and his wrath' comically conjures the image of a certain Peter Jones, 'I do invest you with my power' poignantly exposes Lear's tragic folly: confusing finance and investment with expressions of sincere love. 

This folly comes to it's fruition when his daughters Goneril (a headstrong Catherine Adams) and Regan (a demure Emma Kemp) effectively banish him from their homes. The stage is pleasingly unencumbered with set, allowing swift transitions between scenes, a convenience which adds to the overall rapid pace of the storytelling. Projections, too, aid speed, cleverly navigating us through a whirlwind of locations, many of which are the suburban mansions we readily associate with the moneyed classes. This underlining of the motif of property brings questions of value and deserving to the fore, allowing Lear's complacent throwing off of his own wealth and power to be emphasised with every scene change.

Initially costumes are blandly corporate, a colour palette bleached black by nervous conformity. But as Lear loses his grip on control and the story spills out in myriad different directions we gradually get more and more glimpses of colour, not least in the vivid hi-viz jackets of Lear's remaining loyal subjects, the disguised Kent (Robert Aldington) and the firebrand Fool (Cat Harper).  

Kent's laconic loyalty is touching. He submits to his night in the stocks which much bluster but little bullishness, and his gruff Northern accent speaks instantly of a plainness and honesty worlds apart from the clipped accents of Lear's duplicitous court. Harper plays both Cordelia and The Fool, but it's in the second of these roles that she truly shines. Her Fool is an energetic cheeky-chappy with a skill for ironic, truth-telling one-liners that fall as if freshly minted. Although apparently female, the pronouns have been kept male, the Fool remains 'lad' rather than 'lass'. This is a consciously updated version, with mobile phones replacing letters and messengers. When Lear delivers the curse of barrenness on Goneril, she moodily texts him her punishment, a reduction of his men from 100 to 50. It might have been interesting to see how the dynamic would have shifted if, in a similar vein, the Fool had been allowed to be a woman.

Harry Harding's brooding Edmund is charismatic in his sense of injustice concerning the bastard's lot ('why brand they us with baseness?'). His soliloquies are so compelling that you almost root for the success of his Machiavellian wits over the compromised conventions of inheritance. I was longing to be in the theatre to have that closer sense of collusion and connection. Perhaps as we grow more used to screened performances of this nature more will be made of the possibility of direct gaze through the camera to replicate some of the power of eye to eye contact.

In other respects, director/ producer Jo Emery has really thought through the limitations and possibilities of this new way of watching theatre, even providing a free pdf programme on her website. It's a joy to see a Lear presented so concisely and with so cogent and complete a vision. A final word must go to praising Samuel Jenkins' arch Oswald whose dangling lanyard and prim, supercilious performance had me giggling till the (or more accurately his) end.

A Lear for our age, and a coup for The Watford Pump House.

The production is online only, with no live audience allowed, and will be live-streamed at 7.45pm nightly with "virtual doors" open at 7.30pm, from May 12 to May 15 2021.

Tickets are priced at £14 and must be purchased before 5.45pm on each night of the performance in order to obtain the YouTube streaming link in time.

Tickets are available from the Pump House website at www.pumphouse.info or at www.ticketsource.co.uk/jo-emery-productionsor via the box office on 0333 666 3366.