Branagh is young to play Lear; fine. His capacity to relish the words more than makes up for the young casting, and surrounding himself with a cast of impeccable young actors doesn’t hurt. At points, his interpretation of Lear’s rage felt like a Boomer dad impatient and disappointed with his Millennial children — and on a level this worked in ways I wouldn’t have expected. All that said, while the performances were generally good (Edgar definitely stands out) they also felt fairly safe and declaratory - more “look how well we can speak the text” than raw emotion, and at times pace replaced both.
The design, however, was stunning. Creating a prehistoric world, the revolve also had magical hydraulics, and utilised projection mapping on a stonehenge like circle of stones, with a gorgeous overhead scrim that looked like an eye watching over everything at times. It was, in short, stunning. But we shouldn’t leave a production only thinking about the set. . .