Stage: King Lear

Shakespeare’s Globe tour their mighty Lear to Worthing

The Globe’s award-winning small-scale touring programme returns to the road this summer with a new production of King Lear which visits the Connaught Theatre on 31 May and 1 June. Directed by Bill Buckhurst, the production features Joseph Marcell as Lear, who is best known for his role as Geoffrey in The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and who was last at the Globe in Much Ado About Nothing. Joining him as Gloucester is one of New Zealand’s most popular stage and screen actors Rawiri Paratene, star of Whale Rider.

Shakespeare’s tragedy sees old King Lear, weary of royal duties, break up his kingdom and divide it among his three daughters. His rash generosity is cruelly repaid and Lear discovers too late the false values by which he has lived and, in turn, the suffering common to all humanity. Its tempestuous poetry is shot through with touches of humour and moments of heart-rending simplicity, King Lear is one of the deepest artistic explorations of the human condition.

Director Bill Buckhurst is well-known at Shakespeare’s Globe where he has directed Hamlet with Dominic Dromgoole and played Antipholus in The Comedy Of Errors. In Globe Education’s annual Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank series he played Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing during 2007 and 2008 and has directed Romeo And Juliet, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Using an Elizabethan style booth-stage, inspired by paintings and etchings of touring companies from Shakespeare’s time, eight actors will visit the Connaught Theatre with this scaled-down Globe production.

Connaught Theatre, Worthing, Friday 31 May –Saturday 1 June, 7.30pm, £18.50/17.50,
01903 206206, www.worthingtheatres.co.uk