The world may be about to descend on Edinburgh for its assorted festivals, but there is plenty happening elsewhere in the country in August, as a small army of powerful women on stage appear to be taking the lead. The first four shows have their final dates this weekend, so grab a ticket while you can. Lear Pitlochry Festival Theatre, until 1 August Maureen Beattie takes the title role in Finn den Hertog’s new adaptation of Shakespeare’s saga of sanity, madness and the family in a very personal take on the play that nevertheless remains faithful to the original. As an ageing matriarch only wanting to be told by her daughters how special she is, while Goneril and Regan tell her what she wants to hear, Ailsa Davidson’s Cordelia is having none of it. The result sees Lear lose the plot and do a runner, tended to by Cordelia’s clown doctor Fool, while her big sisters embark on a war that looks like something Quentin Tarantino might have dreamt up if he’d gone cyberpunk. This is Beatti...
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.