King Lear review – Kenneth Branagh’s fast and feverish tragedy

Kenneth Branagh’s King Lear is camp, callow and utterly unmoving

I do not expect ever to see a production of King Lear shorter than Kenneth Branagh’s, which runs to only two hours, and comes with no interval – 55 minutes in, and our capricious monarch is already wandering about in the rain, his wits fraying faster than a pair of old jeans.  But then, this staging, in which the actor directs himself in the title role, owes an awful lot to television, and not only because of its blunt abridgements and almost pa…

King Lear review – Kenneth Branagh’s fast and feverish tragedy

Wyndham’s theatre, LondonAt two hours with no interval, the actor-director’s production hurtles past at such speed that the depths of the play are too rarely realisedKenneth Branagh has confirmed his mercurial ability to inhabit Shakespeare’s flawed heroes over decades on stage and film. We have come to expect great things: energy, polish and accomplished verse diction.That is what we get here, in his production of what some believe to be the mo…