This is a family show. In Dominic Dromgoole's hands Lear is less a tale of a country divided and King without a crown, and more a story of a father in fear of his own declining mental health. As, perhaps, with many families the children are mustard keen to accept their early inheritance but slightly less enthusiastic about caring for their old dad (and in this case his hundred knights). With many parents living beyond their ability to care for themselves or manage their own assets, it is an emphasis which has an obvious resonance for our time - but we lose the play's political edge. When is was first performed by the 'Kings Men' before the young King James I and VI of Scotland, King Lear would have been an urgently political play - seeming to expose an ancient folly of dividing Britain three ways at a time when James' great project was to unite the statehoods of England and Scotland. With a referendum on Scotland's independence currently in the offing, it seems an untimely sacrifice but Drumgooles' take makes for an accessible version of an often daunting play and even raises a few laughs.
       David Calder is well cast as Lear, he manages the falling apart of his mind amongst Shakespeare's disintegrating language with the touching pathos of an old man being slowly dismantled by dementia. The attachment and increasingly close identification Lear has for his fool, an irresistibly camp Danny Lee Winter, developed sweetly through the trials of rejection, sadness, madness and inclement weather that Shakespeare throws at them both. "When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools" says Lear, and this is one the production's strongest themes.
       The pace is fast throughout, which is perhaps appropriate to a venue where acoustics, lighting and atmosphere don't always lend themselves well to nuanced introspection. Music has become one of the Globe's strongest suits and here it is hauntingly beautiful and conjours the pagan pre-Christian world in which the play is set. The composer, Claire von Hampen, has used Celtic sources and Old English poetry to create a sublime counterpoint to the frantic madness and animosity on stage. Sackbut, voice and hurdy-gurdy seldom sound so dolefully sweet.
       There are strong performances from Daniel Hawksford as Edmund and Trystan Graville as Edgar, from Calder and from the very promising Danny Lee Winter but otherwise the acting was surprisingly uneven. This is the start of the run and we can assume that things will improve but Joseph Mydell gave a thin performance as Gloucester and Sally Bretton as Goneril spent the first half of the play annunciating the verse like a foreign language she was trying to master. Nevertheless, this is a strong, entertaining and humane production, and whilst the lack of political emphasis robbed the tragedy of some of the epic quality of its fall, the sadness of family disintergration amidst ambition and madness is palpably felt.
Charlie Taylor