Lear cheer

Went to the Simon Russell Beale Nat Theatre Lear at the Nova.  The best Lear I've ever seen, in that it didn't try for pathos, made no bones about Lear being a horrible person at every point of the play, and had Lear kill the fool himself. Beale's invocation of clinical dementia was masterly - that hand crooked behind his back, the alternation between whining and shouting - and the battle/devastation scenes underlined how idiotic it was for Lear to split the kingdom.  When I have a chance I will write a short Lear from the point of view of the King of France, who really does seem to have a keen eye to the main chance.