Summary 
Expertly directed production begins with a long scene filled with nuance and detail, the desperate homeless on the fringe around a physically and mentally ailing Lear. A powerhouse lead performance alternates between angry and nearly insane with occasional bursts of heart-rending remorse. He is helped onstage by Cordelia and limps off after his explosion of temper. Potent supporting performances from a Fool with a physical affection for the title character, a muscular hero Kent, and a perplexed Edgar thrust from his home and into the countryside, much like his former King. The evil sisters and Gloucester also play well, but focus is on the dramatic reunions and forgiveness of the fifth act, then of course the tragic conclusion only slightly buoyed by the presence of strong future leadership. An excellent overall telling of a great tragedy.
Design
Directed by Antoni Cimolino. Designed by Eo Sharp. Lighting Design by Michael Walton. Compositions by Keith Thomas. Sound Design by Thomas Ryder Payne.
Cast
Colm Feore (King Lear), Maev Beaty (Goneril), Sara Farb (Cordelia), Lilsa Repo-Martell (Regan), Stephen Ouimette (Fool), Jonathan Goad (Kent), Scott Wentworth (Gloucester), Even Buliung (Edgar), Brad Hodder (Edmund), Michael Blake (Albany), Mike Shara (Cornwall), Karl Ang (King of France).
Analysis
Antoni Cimolino's production of King Lear at the Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario begins with an impressive 1.1, the environment artfully presented, the interactions revealed with nuance, the father's wounded rage a chilling harbinger of familial tragedy. Staged in period, a campfire burns deep upstage, a group of homeless people - long-haired and barefooted, dressed in rags - trying to warm themselves around the flames. The homeless are present throughout, watching from the edges of the stage, chased away by Cornwall 2.1, comforted by Poor Tom 4.1. At the beginning, dogs bark in the distance and the homeless seem to cower as Gloucester and Kent walk downstage, worlds apart beneath glimmering candelabra, layered in leather and wool. Colm Feore's Lear arrives with black-clad guards in red sashes, wearing helmets and brandishing spears. Feore's kinetic Lear wears long white hair and a gray beard, and he seems gaunt and aching, as if he is ill or has been ill, and his demeanor seems almost frantic. Helped onstage by Cordelia, he looks at and speaks directly to her - his clear favorite - when he announces his succession plans, then sits anxiously to hear which daughter loves him most. Cordelia turns worriedly to the audience while her sisters wax eloquent, the tall Goneril in white gloves and long gown rambling in flowery praise, the shorter and squinchier Regan in her tight little hair-bun embracing Feore's Lear from behind. When Cordelia turns away from praising him, Lear's anger is swift - "nothing shall come of nothing" - and extreme: "come not between the dragon and its wrath." He shoves her into a stagger away from him and re-divides his map of England, then pulls the crown from her hair and strikes at the long-haired Kent - "see better!" - with it. Feore's Lear exits with a noticeable limp, Cordelia sobbing and the banished Kent still kneeling. When Goneril and Regan are left alone, they celebrate and cheer, one lounging in the comfort of their father's vacated throne.
Cimolino and his impressive cast could not possibly maintain the same level of subtle nuance amid poetic grandeur beyond the opening scene, but they occasionally do, and the overall production resonates, especially due to Colm Feore's exceptional performance in the title role. His retired Lear is a proud and entitled old man 1.4, arriving at Goneril's home with a still-royal air, accompanied by hunting attendants and the Fool. To the sound effects of horses and barking dogs, he calls - "drink!" - and sits with foot out, waiting for his boot to be removed. Feore's Lear is mercurial, growling at the dressed-in-rags Fool's biting jokes about his influence - "Lear's shadow" - then incensed at being rebuffed first by a servant then by the chilly Goneril herself. He shouts at the servant - "how now!" - then at his daughter - "is this not Lear?" - and his anger flips manically with wracking remorse, as he suddenly weeps at the mention of Cordelia and beats at the sides of his head. He then mounts Goneril from behind, delivering his curse of sterility with a horrific lechery. Staggering to center stage, he leans upon the Fool 1.5 and admits to the now close-copped Kent: "I did her wrong." He seems to share physical affection with the Fool, who rests his head fondly on Lear's shoulder. Lear cries out for him as the storm increases in intensity 2.4 and later in 3.2 shows more concern for the Fool than for himself as the storm peaks, helping guide the jester to safety amid strobe lightning and cracking peals of thunder. His cry of "I have full course of weeping" brings the interval, and by 3.4 Lear is a mental and emotional mess, falling to his knees -"I'll pray" - then stripping away most of his clothes.
The disguised Kent draws some appreciation from Lear when he knocks down the huffy Goneril servant 1.4, kicking him from the stage, and Jonathan Goad plays him with the square-jawed righteousness of a muscular hero. He disarms another servant, this time Regan's, in 2.1, and begins to fight with Edmund before being arrested. Kent's loyalty to the former King - Lear helps him stand when he is freed from the stocks, but Kent drops to his knees in the royal presence - contrasts with the hubris of the princesses. Goneril and Regan grasp each other's hands in a show of unity against their father - "I gave you all!" - and the uber-snotty Cornwall smirks and crosses his arms at a lunge from Feore's unraveling Lear, then stuffs snuff up his nose 3.7 before a self-righteous interrogation of Gloucester. He uses a quill to remove Gloucester's eyes amid god-awful screams, dropping each oozy mess - "out vile jelly!" - to the stage with a graphic plop after being wounded by a servant defending Gloucester.
Scott Wentworth plays Gloucester with military authority, his hesitation at giving "good report" of his illegitimate son another telling moment from 1.1. His counterpoint sons meet 1.2, Edmund a tall bald and lean young man with a menacing stare, and Edgar a swaggering open-shirted drunk, slurring his words and drinking straight from a liquor bottle snatched from him by his brother. After Edmund fakes a 2.1 swordfight, cutting himself for a show of blood, Gloucester's armed guards carry torches and pursue Edgar, and he is again shown on the run 2.3, scurrying across the stage as the homeless watch him from the shadows upstage, the sound of barking dogs in the distance. Evan Buliung does well with the notoriously difficult and often thankless role of Edgar, half-pretending his own insanity as Poor Tom, shedding his clothes a la Feore's Lear. He ironically bumps into his father Gloucester 3.5, watches the mock-trial of Goneril 3.6 while barking like a dog, and by 4.1 has found a "home," if not kinship, among the homeless. Wentworth's Gloucester is heartbreaking, a ravaged old man with a blue bandage across his eyes, and his croak of a confession - "I stumbled when I saw" - before a collapse into Poor Tom's arms is a precursor to Lear's own humble apologies, later. Their realizations as father and child and "madman and the blind" are lit in a blaze of yellow sunshine light and amid the sound of birds chirping nearby, again a precursor to Lear's forgiveness by Cordelia in 4.7.
The three sisters are well played, Goneril a lusty cougar flirting with Edmund 4.2, giving him a necklace then kissing him and meowing at him after he is assaulted by her husband. Cordelia returns from France 4.4 with an army of blue-uniformed soldiers and the sound effect of charging cavalry, and Regan seethes with jealousy over her sister and Edmund 4.5, but the rest of the production is highlighted by Feore's exceptional Lear. He emerges 4.6 like a medieval hippie, barefoot with a garland of flowers around his head, his pants ragged and his shirt torn. He gestures at members of the audience, one moment knowing and sane - "they flattered me like a dog" - then the next manic and hysterical: "let copulation thrive!" Cimolino's subtle images are again poignant: in acknowledging a wounded kinship, Feore's Lear takes the face of Edgar gently in his hands, and when blinded Gloucester tries but collapses in trying to help the old King remove his boots, Lear pulls the man gratefully into his arms. Gloucester gets to his knees for a prayer when the French soldiers arrive, and Feore's Lear at first acknowledges them with lucid authority, then scampers off like a madman.
Cimolino's superbly directed conclusion packs a powerful dramatic punch, the captured Lear returned to the stage 4.7 upon a stretcher to gentle string music, moving Cordelia to tears. Lear gently chastens the heroic Kent - "you do me wrong to take me out of the grave" - then once he finally recognizes Cordelia - "methinks I should know you" - he tries to kneel to ask her forgiveness. When she stops him, he seems wracked with guilt, and his voice is barely a whisper: "if you have poison for me, I will drink it." Her embrace of him and tearful forgiving are as moving as in any production of Lear I have seen.
The confrontation between Edgar in disguise and his brother, accompanied by both the sisters, ushers in the tragic conclusion, Regan sluggish and bent over, already poisoned, Goneril edging closer to the 5.3 duel in excited bloodlust. The chaos of the combat - Edmund stabbed, Regan dying, Albany threatening the fleeing Goneril ("shut thy mouth") - is ended by Feore's Lear entrance upstage. He carries the white-robed Cordelia in his arms - "howl howl howl!" - and cradles her at center stage, both angry ("you are men of stone" ) and grieving ("Cordelia, stay a little"). Goad's Kent must prop Lear into a sitting position and he dies quietly, with a soft "never, never," and then to end Cimolino's excellent production, Goad's Kent joins Albany and Edgar upstage as England's new triumvirate leadership, a real if subdued promise for the future.