Photo by Tim Morozzo“I am a man, More sinn’d against than sinning” Read more …
The ageing King decides to step down from the throne and divide his estate between his three daughters.
Deceived by false promises and rejecting his one faithful daughter, Lear’s former kingdom spirals into chaos as he is driven to madness by the cruel treatment of his own family.
A profound exploration of the human condition and Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. Celebrated film, TV and stage actor David Hayman returns to the Citizens in the title role, 33 years after his last appearance.
What’s striking about Dominic Hill’s fine production...is the extent to which it allows Hayman to become not a leading actor carrying the play alone, but the central figure in a rich, rough-edged and occasionally thrilling ensemble of younger actors.
Hill marshals his forces for a gripping closing scene that fuses power politics and domestic drama; until this point, it's a production low on compassion.
Hill’s bleak production is no mere homage or retread; in its depiction of a society let down and abandoned by its rulers it feels chillingly modern.
Hayman himself makes a better madman than he does a king but his commitment is total and his final scenes with Cordelia are as tender as you could wish for.
Although director Dominic Hill's production boasts a transcendent central performance, it is a superb presentation across the board...This is a King Lear, then, which could stand beside the best in this year of the World Shakespeare Festival, and one which will, a generation from now, be spoken of as "Hayman's Lear".
Dominic Hill's startling reinvention of one of the Bard's greatest tragedies has blown a tempest through Shakespeare's text, extracting every subtext in every word, every emotion in every line and resurrecting ancient issues for a modern audience...Hill's players are uniformly excellent.
This production will be long remembered as "Hayman's Lear", and rightly so. However, every other aspect of this superb staging, from the excellent cast to Paddy Cunneen's disconcerting music and sound, contributes splendidly to a coherent, transfixing and deeply memorable rendering of a great tragedy.
David Hayman returns to the Citizens for first time in three decades to perform King Lear
David Hayman to play King Lear at Citizens Theatre
Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow from Friday April 20, 2012, until Saturday May 12, 2012. More info: www.citz.co.uk
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