If the current state of Britain were to reflect a Shakespeare play, many might hope for Richard II: weak and despised leader brutally deposed. But with Boris Johnson resisting that plot, it is King Lear – a nation disintegrating amid a sense of everything ending – that feels most apt.
Started by Helena Kaut-Howson but realised by the cast as the director recovers from injury, the new Globe production stresses these topicalities. Costumes are modern and performers verbally underline the repeated negativities – “nothing”, “worst”, “madness” – that echo harshly across the text.
