A play remains a classic for as long as it continues to yield new meanings. Shakespeare’s King Lear, for example, remains open to interpretation. Its story of a retiring king bequeathing his lands to his daughters before descending into madness can, in the right hands, engage with many themes in the modern day including dementia.
It was not really necessary for writer-director Dan Colley to construct a whole new play about it, but that is what the Irish theatre-maker has done in Lost Lear. Venetia Bowe plays a retired actor, now resident in a care home, whose memory has faded in every respect apart from a word-perfect recall of Shakespeare’s play. To keep her relaxed, the staff take on the parts of Goneril, Regan, Cordelia and the Fool as she loops repeatedly through her favourite scenes of parental regret.
