Theatre
King Lear
Pjazza Teatru Rjal

Misplaced trust is terrible to experience. It undoes you completely, both because of the consequences it may have on the outcome of your ventures ­– economic, political and emotional – and because it undoes the security of your beliefs and your capacity for good judgement.

The result can be devastating, as is explored in Shakespeare’s historio-political tragedy King Lear, where misplaced trust leads to the kindling of the most corruptive nature within people who abuse of their political power.

This year’s Globe Theatre on Tour’s production of King Lear, held last week as part of the Malta Arts Festival, brought the travesty of loyalty and the tragedy of a father who realises the error of his judgement too late, in a manner which respected the tradition of the original dramatic verse. This was, in no small part, thanks to director Bill Buckhurst’s steady and clean direction.

A valid and illuminating performance of a fine script by a fine cast

Held in that ex-car-park-bomb-site which has been Pian-ified into faux gentility as Pjazza Teatru Rjal, the one thing I can criticise about the performance is that they did not stray from the compact confines of their travelling stage to make use of the large acting space which the stage at the venue itself offered.

The performers did, however, use the aisles. Their consistent recognition of the audience’s value during the musical interludes (composed by Alex Silverman) and at appropriate instances throughout the play, led to strong audience engagement.

This in itself was admirable, since Lear is not one of Shakespeare’s easier scripts, and is certainly one of his longest. It is a testament to the actors’ clarity of diction and coherent delivery of lines that the play was comfortably comprehensible in spite of the revving cars, fireworks and the Joseph Calleja concert rehearsal which could be heard in the background.

The phrasing and pacing of the lines was second to none and it was a pleasure to encounter Shakespeare’s text in such a manageable form, especially since it was performed in its entirety.

Although rather tenuous, Lear’s decision to divide his kingdom between his daughters based on their declaration of love for him, is built upon the arrogance of a sovereign who is not used to being crossed and expects fealty from his family and court.

Thus, Joseph Marcell’s Lear, imbued with the contrasting tones of authority and initial playfulness, allows himself to fall for the false flattery of his two elder daughters, Goneril (Gwendoline Chatfield) and Regan (Shanaya Rafaat).

What he is blind to is the honesty which his youngest daughter Cordelia (Bethan Cullinane) offers him in place of her sisters’ vacuous flattery.

Another figuratively and later, literally blind character to be fooled by his offspring is the Earl of Gloucester, who is all too easily persuaded by his illegitimate son Edmund of his legitimate son and heir Edgar’s supposed conspiracy against him.

In such a manner does Shakespeare consider the worthiness of children and their loyalties to their parents; with those who appear obedient and eager to serve ultimately revealing their selfish nature, and those who are true to themselves and their filial duties being acknowledged far too late. It is the case made by the playwright for substance over superficiality.

The children in King Lear are mirrors of each other, with Chatfield’s Goneril and Rafaat’s Regan, whose interpretation I particularly enjoyed, at odds against their sister Cordelia, whom Cullinane played with poise and a certain queenly aloofness which enhanced her moral standpoint.

In contrast, Chatfield’s scheming Goneril came forth in full passive aggressive mode, while Rafaat’s Regan was cold, calculating and almost viscerally gleeful when she rips Gloucester’s eye out, followed by her husband, the equally vile and vindictive Duke of Cornwall, who takes out his other.

A great mark of the cast’s fine abilities was the considerable character doubling – done so skilfully that you could notice the changing nuances between Daniel Pirrie’s bastard Edmund and his simpering and rather cowardly Oswald, Goneril’s trusted manservant.

The scene where he alternates between the two characters on either side of Goneril, as he flits from one end of the stage to the other, had a touch of the comedic while retaining its effectiveness and showcased his skill, as did Alex Mugnaioni’s doubling between the bookish Edgar, Edgar on the run disguised as the Bedlam Beggar and his unsavoury Duke of Cornwall.

Mugnaioni had some impressively quick changes and still did not miss a beat, keeping the pace moving smoothly. Cullinane’s doubling as the Fool was great to see because of the significance of the fool’s lines, suffused with truths and witticisms, which she managed to convey with charm and humour in equal measures while not detracting from their importance.

Loyalty to Lear was clear in Bill Nash’s portrayal of the Earl of Kent, who disguises himself as a lowly countryman to follow and protect Lear and gave a fine show of chivalry and stage fighting, alternating between righteous and ribald, while never losing sight of what the truth is: Cordelia’s honesty and her sisters’ deceit.

The gravitas which John Stahl gave to his Earl of Gloucester, made it truly an enviable performance and merged loyalty with pride and the humble contrition which follows it, marking this character as one of Shakespeare’s best wrought and certainly best interpreted in this performance. His dismay at having misjudged his son Edgar mirrors Lear’s own disappointment and subsequent madness at his errorsin judgement.

Indisputably, the political machinations which Shakespeare tackles in King Lear and the fine study of the different facets of humanity in the face of corruptive power, is still relevant and insightful in contemporary society, perhaps even more so – making the Globe’s production a valid and illuminating performance of a fine script by a fine cast.