IN THE week following the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, the staging, in Oxford, of a production of what many believe to be his greatest play was timely.

King Lear is considered to be very challenging to stage because of the emotional subject matter and language, while the role of the monarch - who gives up his kingdom to his two older daughters and descends into madness after they turn against him - is one of the most difficult in theatre.

With a potential running time of almost four hours, the tragedy can also be challenging for the audience.

Fortunately, the version of King Lear at the Oxford Playhouse came in at less than three hours (including interval), and, thanks to some physical acting from the cast, the audience should have been able to get the general sense of the play even if they had not swotted up on their York Notes beforehand.

Michael Pennington, in the eponymous role, was excellent.

The demanding, emotional part of Lear requires great experience of stage acting and life in general, and the 72-year-old Pennington draws on this to great effect, portraying the transition from arrogance to anger, then madness, self-realisation and, finally, heart-breaking grief with aplomb.

He was generally well supported by the rest of the cast. The pivotal relationship between Lear and The Fool (Joshua Elliott) - in which the latter helps the former monarch realise that it is indeed he has been the fool - is well played.

The chemistry between Lear and Gloucester (Pip Donaghy) - another wronged father whose metaphorical blindness becomes physical in a gruesome attack at the hand of the king's son-in-law Cornwall - was a particular highlight.

However, Scott Karim, as Gloucester's ambitious illegitimate son Edmund - who plots to get the title and land that he feels he deserves - lacked conviction and did not fully convey the resentment and ruthlessness of the character.

In the end, it is the banished children - Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia and Gloucester's legitimate son Edgar - who, in spite of everything, retain their devotion and love for their respective fathers and return to save them.

While evil is fatally punished, so too are the faults of the fathers as almost all of the leading characters in this dark tragedy are killed off.

Ultimately, Lear is, as he says, "a man more sinned against than sinning".

By Simon Williams