Lear review – this matriarchal monarch’s tragedy is personal not political

Pitlochry Festival theatreMaureen Beattie leads a modern-dress version, which focuses on family dynamics rather than the decline of Shakespeare’s mighty rulerYou know when you walk into a room then forget why you came in? Maureen Beattie does that at the start of this gender-swapped version of Shakespeare’s tragedy. She strides on, catches herself, half wanders back, turns on her heels and goes out another way altogether. A little later, she needs a moment to remember the name of Goneril, her daughter. In the depths of the second half, she is slumped in a wheelchair, talking with painful deliberation and we know where it all started.Yet this Queen Lear can be sharp, too. Dividing her kingdom between Goneril (Jenny Hulse), Regan (Lindsey Campbell) and Cordelia (Ailsa Davidson), she is an articulate woman who expects respect. Continue reading...