Watching him now at the age of 76, it seems inconceivable that renowned Shakespearian actor Edward Petherbridge had not previously been offered the role of King Lear – he seems a natural for it. Nonetheless his first opportunity came in 2007 in New Zealand. Unfortunately he never got past the second day of rehearsals, as two strokes hospitalised him and snatched the part away from under his nose.
What he did notice as he began to recover was that, while many of his faculties including speech and movement had been severely affected, his memory of the entire text of Lear remained fully intact in his mind. He resolved that sooner or later he would play the part, even if it meant doing a one-man version of the play.
His first acting engagement following his illness was a musical, The Fantasticks, in the West End in 2010 where he met Paul Hunter, a founding member of Told by an Idiot. Paul suggested that a two man version may be a better idea; better still, a two man play about somebody NOT playing Lear.
A heavily raked stage (recalling their experience of The Fantasticks) has been turned through 90 degrees to face side-on and place the audience in the wings, creating a world very much out of balance in which walking is an uphill struggle and furniture won’t stand still. In such a world where nothing is on the level, the only parallels left seem to be those between the trials and tribulations of King Lear and those of a man whose life has been shattered by stroke.
Director Kathryn Hunter, whose mother suffered a fatal stroke at roughly the time the project was mooted, has worked together with the performers through many hours of improvisation to devise a play in which Edward Petherbridge acts out the story of Lear through a series of extracts from Shakespeare’s text, interspersed, or dovetailed as they put it, with the rather more disjointed account of the events that led to him not playing the part.
While the Shakespearian tale is told in more or less linear fashion, Petherbridge’s own story leaps back and forth in time taking us back to his childhood, through his career with the National Theatre and RSC, to the offer of the fateful part in New Zealand and beyond. We follow him through a phone call made to the emergency services from a hotel room floor and appointments with doctors, to his appearance in The Fantasticks and then even right into the performance of the play we are watching, which all becomes rather surreal.
He was quite adamant throughout the creative process that it must not dwell on his illness and become a subject of pity, but use the experience as a vehicle for exploring the wider subjects of the strength of the human spirit against adversity and, eventually, the triumph of positive thinking, highlighted by that Morecambe and Wise song played as the piece ends.
Paul Hunter manages to play a variety of parts including a German doctor, several of Petherbridge’s family including his mother, his drama teacher from Bradford, the theatre producer from New Zealand and an array of characters from King Lear. He himself reflected that managing to give a believable reading of Cordelia whilst dressed in a track suit and with paint daubed all over his face (don’t ask) is not the easiest thing, but somehow the alchemy of theatre allows it to work.
Speaking to the audience after the show on Wednesday night, the actors explained the mixture of techniques they had used to make something that grew out of improvisation appear carefully scripted, even when some of it is still a work in progress. They contrasted this with the more usual convention of making a classical script appear like something fresh and improvised.
The result of their efforts is something very hard to describe but strangely wonderful. A deeply engaging performance that takes us into the world of Lear through the mind of a man trapped by illness in an unfamiliar place and trying to escape back into the real world of theatre.
Confused? You won’t be. But if you go to see this play you can expect a lot of laughter, a rollercoaster ride of emotions and a thought-provoking and life-enhancing experience.
My Perfect Mind plays at the Unity Theatre Liverpool until Saturday 9th March after which it transfers to the Salisbury Playhouse and then the Old Vic, London, till 20th April.
For details, visit www.toldbyanidiot.org
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