Lear – Traverse Theatre - North West End UK

review: LEAR at Traverse Theatre

Rating: 3 out of 5. “An excellent idea – but not much more” On its surface, the idea to adapt the work of Shakespear into a dialogue-less mime, is a brilliant one. The story of King Lear is one that has been told thousands of times in thousands of ways, which surely makes adapting it again a daunting undertaking. Ramesh Meyyappan rises to this challenge by reducing the story all the way down to its bare essentials – which may work better in conc…

Lear – Traverse Theatre - North West End UK

Shakespeare’s infamous tragedy is significantly thinned down and reinterpreted into a one hour wordless anti-war allegory by Ramesh Meyyappan, but retains a raw power and delicate beauty and some rather unexpected humour that make it a thoroughly watchable and thought provoking addition to the Lear genre. This Lear has a worldly feel and international backing, a production by Glasgow based Raw Material in association with National Theatre for Sc…