King Lear
By William Shakespeare
State Theatre Company
Dunstan Playhouse. November 5.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Unlike the other Shakespearean heavyweights, Lear is the tragedy of a kingdom, not an individual. When the old man makes the fateful decision to divide jurisdiction of his land, he sunders it – and all hell breaks lose. When the power is fragmented it turns against itself. Legitimacy is replaced by civil strife, the chain of being is catastrophically overturned.

In State Theatre’s production …