Yaël Farber is known for the unrushed, ritualistic pace of her plays, having directed Shakespeare’s most feverish tragedy, Macbeth, at two and a half hours, to some critical consternation. But Farber has found her natural home in King Lear with this dark, doomy and epic production.
It still feels more than its three-and-a-half-hour duration, but once in its elements, it ekes out every last tragedy, from King Lear’s unravelling to the fulminating rivalry between sisters Goneril (Akiya Henry) and Regan (Faith Omole), and the subplot of one brother Edmund (Fra Fee) betraying another Edgar (Matthew Tennyson). We feel the smallest sadness, even that of Kent (Alec Newman), who stays loyal to Lear and witnesses his final moments.
