The moment Paul Gross planted both feet on the Festival Theatre stage for the opening night of King Lear the actor, better known for his cinematic and television outings, immediately laid to rest any misgivings one might have with his being cast as Shakespeare’s most complex monarch.
In a role that has perplexed, invited, and enticed countless actors over the years with one Albert Finney avoiding it, Gross made himself right at home tackling all aspects of the troubled king from his personal battle of fighting for his sanity to his ill-considered vanity-guided decision to split his kingdom between his three daughters and their husbands.
Though hard to believe in such a dramatic tragedy, there are even moments of humour in which Lear takes centre stage, most noticeably when trading barbs with his cheeky court Fool, played brilliantly by Gordon Patrick White or simply cavorting about, shouting, and screaming with his court followers in tow, some waiting for his ultimate collapse.
