KING LEAR

The Tobacco Factory, Bristol

Bristol's Tobacco Factory is probably one of Britain's least prepossessing theatres. In fact, it is hard to call it a theatre at all, since the cavernous expanses and cat's cradle of superannuated pipework are more reminiscent of the derelict industrial spaces appropriated as studios by the high bohemian wing of the modern art movement. And yet, in this clattering emptiness, theatrical magic is being woven.

Constructed like a biopod of creativity amidst the encircling void, a small studio space provides the venue in which to realise director Andrew Hilton's dream to stage large cast classical productions of the Shakespeare's work in intimate surroundings. This 16 actor production of King Lear gives firm affirmation to Hilton's vision of chamber theatre.

As the onlookers face one another across a narrow stage, the setting has all the tense intimacy of a tennis match. With the audience placed virtually in the heart of the action, far-off regal strife is brought into tight close-up, transformed into a bitter family row as gripping and gritty as a TV drama. At times, one feels like an embarrassed bystander in a riveting domestic squabble.

Roland Oliver's Lear is no effete royal. In the manner of the times, this is a man who has fought and schemed his way to the kingship, more East End boy made good than soft hereditary monarch, his accent slipping down the social scale as his anger boils. he demands that gangland touchstone 'respect', and grumbles like a lion in winter angered by the insolence of his cubs when he does not receive it.

Those cubs are presented with considerably more substance than one often sees in productions of Lear. Dee Sadler's Goneril is a character full of depth, a woman more sinned against than sinning with the serious and somewhat sad demeanour often found amongst eldest children. As such, she strikes a clear contrast with Saskia Portway's Regan, who has the polished malice of a stiletto. A similar high standard of characterisation is evident amongst the other players. Even the nauseatingly virtuous characters, Kent (Jonathan Nibbs) and Cordelia (Lucy Black), are stripped of their customary cloying sweetness.

The richness of characterisation is only one aspect of the depth in which director Andrew Hilton has penetrated the piece (aided by ten years of teaching Shakespeare at the Old Vic Theatre School). The production is as tight and pacy as a thriller, John Telfer's music lends a dramatic underscore and sense of doom to the proceedings, and the presence of so many actors imparts a deceptive sense of opulence to the staging which is very different from the usual sparse small cast studio productions.

One of the finest productions of Shakespeare - or any other playwright for that matter - seen in Bristol in years, this staging proves that King Lear needs no '1000 Acres' style popularisation to be as spellbinding to a modern audience as any high quality Hollywood blockbuster. Go and see it.

TOBY O'CONNOR MORSE

To 11 March (07989 468584)