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Yaël Farber’s production of King Lear at the Almeida Theatre is imbued with an undercurrent of tension that feels as if it’s constantly on the edge of exploding into violence. It’s not her first crack at Shakespeare – in 2001 she adapted Julius Caesar, and she directed Hamlet at the Gate in Dublin in 2018 and Macbeth at the Almeida in 2021 – but I’d be willing to bet it’s her most virulent.
Danny Sapani’s Lear flies into a terrifying rage, scattering microphones across the stage
The opening scene – a swanky press conference that could have been lifted straight from an episode of Succession – neatly sets the tone of the snippy relationships. Danny Sapani’s Lear is a man who isn’t used to hearing the word ‘No’, flying into a terrifying rage and scattering microphones across the stage with a powerful backhand when Cordelia (Gloria Obianyo) refuses to take part in his circus of public flattery.
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