There was a wonderful interview on BBC Radio Four yesterday (Front Row Thursday Nov 20) with Pete Postlethwaite, who's playing King Lear in Rupert Goold's critically panned version at the Everyman in Liverpool. This production (which I haven't seen) was billed as the theatrical highlight of Liverpool's year as European City of Culture, but got awful reviews, even from such fair-minded critics as Michael Billington and Susannah Clapp. As a piece of delicate stiletto work carried out by an actor on a director, Postlethwaite's interview was in a class of its own. Of course, he didn't criticise Gould openly. But he made it sound as though the entire cast had gone into revolt and forced Goold to junk lots of his high-concept variations and additions to the play, such as a recording of Margaret Thatcher's 'Let us bring harmony' soundbite when she took office in 1979. Finally, nearly four weeks after the opening, the production 'is just getting to base camp,' he told interviewer John Wilson. Ouch.
He made it clear that the cast were 'overwhelmed by the ideas and technicalities' of Goold's production and their performances suffered. The Thatcher recording at the start of the play was 'symptomatic of things that were misjudged,' he said, noting that the remainder of the production didn't have any political references: 'Rupert has been bold enough to say that didn't work.' Postlethwaite, who had waited years for the chance to play Lear, was obviously wounded by the critical mauling the production received, and was making clear that it wasn't the poor bloody actors' fault. Wilson asked whether the cast had tried to sit down and air their concerns with the director. 'It's very difficult to sit down with Rupert. You go along and you trust.' According to Postlethwaite, the cast are now 'a very happy bunch of bunnies' and the play has risen like a phoenix from the ashes. After the new year it comes to the Young Vic (not the old Vic, as Wilson announced) and will look quite different, apparently. Perhaps the critics will give it a second chance. But I think Goold's reputation as the wonder boy of British theatre will take a while to recover. I'm wondering if Mrs Thatcher will be on stage when he does Time And The Conways at the National next year.
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