Union Theatre, London SE1

As a “canonical” tragedy Shakespeare’s King Lear is often performed and indeed, just down the road from this venue the National Theatre has its own production running. 

The difference is that Phil Wilmott’s staging offers a novel engagement with the play, with the removal of “king” from the title a gesture towards his key innovation, the casting of Ursula Mohan as Queen Lear.

The change is a striking one. It is a woman who divides up her kingdom between her children, a mother whose vanity results in the banishment of her youngest daughter and a discarded old woman who philosophises with Poor Tom on a storm-ravaged heath.

Mohan’s strong performance as Lear makes the text ask surprising questions it didn’t necessarily ask before and reframes many of the play’s engagements with questions of ageing and leadership. 

The audience are forced to confront many of their own assumptions about women, ageing and madness in a fashion that feels effectively claustrophobic and fraught. 

While the acting is at times uneven, Rikki Lawton’s Edmund is charismatic and Tom McCarron’s Edgar is touching, especially when he sees his blinded father Gloucester for the first time.

The distinctive, intimate space of the Union Theatre is used effectively, with the audience standing amongst the characters for the first 15 minutes. We are, literally, part of the court for Lear’s division of the kingdom and her disowning of Cordelia. It’s a physical device that effectively catapults the viewer into this more intimate and, at times, domestic version of the English court. 

Josh Phard’s lighting is incredibly atmospheric and the single beam of light that hits McCarron’s Edgar, as his despair creates his Poor Tom persona, is highly effective. Less engaging though is the occasional and unnecessary background music which rather undermines the work the cast do to set the tone. 

Yet in asking questions both of Shakespeare’s text and the audience in a challenging and invigorating fashion this is certainly a production worth seeing. 

Lear runs until June 28. Box office: (020) 7261-9876.