Christopher Rawson, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

March 30, 2014

LONDON — Scratch the bio of the British actors omnipresent on TV and film and you usually find deep experience in Shakespeare. Whatever the Bard may be in the United States (The New York Times recently commented on his frequent appearances in New York this past year), he’s a regular presence on London stages.

So on the Post-Gazette London theater tour two weeks ago, I had the good fortune to score two high-profile Shakespeares, which I’ll label High and Low.

First there was “King Lear” at the National Theatre starring Simon Russell Beale, which you could call a trifecta of the greatest tragedy, theater company and actor — greatest English stage actor of his generation, that is, with nods also to Mark Rylance and Ralph Fiennes.

Then, at the other extreme, came Edward Hall’s Propeller company in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a delicious comic trifecta of leading young director, skilled all-male company and a comedy that can bend itself to many interpretative approaches.

In a week where I also saw Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest flop (more about that next week) and a variety of other shows, mainly fun but lightweight, this Shakespeare duo was the highlight. […continued]

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