It’s [Hunter's] prodigiously powerful stage presence, masculine body language and stentorian voice ... that anchors this rendition ... Even so, the production that has been built around her is ... unfortunately patchy and thematically rudderless.
Read more

Hunter takes her place, with Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Paul Scofield (on film), and Glenda Jackson among the Lears seared in my mind.
Read more

"Amid an age when human discourse seems to debase itself further by the day, you’d think this would be the ideal time to revisit a play that induces a knowing assent at the assertion after the interval that 'wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile' – how true that comment, made apparently in passing, seems just now."
Read more

There is not a false moment in Kathryn Hunter’s performance as King Lear. Coming 25 years after she first played the role ... this magnetic performer has lost none of her [power]. [It] makes for an interesting, distinctive evening, but a long way short of a great one.
Read more

The most striking thing about this production of King Lear ... is the physical transformation of Kathryn Hunter in the title role. However ... the production comes over as rather uneven, and Hunter’s performance a bit of a curate’s egg.
Read more

Minimal effects mean the performances and language are allowed to do the heavy-lifting. Beyond Hunter’s resonant central performance, Ryan Donaldson’s Edmund stands out.
Read more