Shakespeare's King Lear is a tragedy with elements to make soap operas look tame. Family rivalry, adultery, death, and anguish - all facets of human despair are explored in this play.

Indeed there is little to smile about as we follow the trials of King Lear, the mad monarch.

Lear is king of England, nearing the end of his reign and his life. His slow descent of dementia is known to all around him and the play opens as he divides his kingdom among his three daughters and their partners should they have them.

He asks for proof from them that they love him and his two eldest, Goneril and Regan, give their lip service to their father before receiving their portions of his kingdom.

Your Local Guardian:

Lear's youngest, Cordelia, does not pander to him, telling him she has demonstrated her love in equal return to what he has done for her. Furious with her lack of grand speech, Lear gives her portion away to her sisters.

What ensues is family war and dispute with brothers in law fighting. 

King Lear, as the title role, bears the weight of the play's success on his shoulders, but it is a challenge that Michael Pennington rises too.

By the end of the play, he has captured the torment of the decline in 'madness', dodging between moments of wellness when he knows he is ill and simply being ill.

It was harder to warm to the daughters and though Goneril and Regan are clearly the enemies of the piece, even Cordelia did not rally people to her cause.

Scott Karim's Edmund is self-assured but could be more wily.

The costume design is somewhat confusing as for the most part the play feels as though it could be set in the 1920s. Female dress has a distinctly war time feel to it but within minutes, the actors look as though they have shared outfits with the cast of Les Miserables.

As he took to the stage for the second time as the doomed King Lear, Mr Pennington wrote: "All but two of Shakespeare's cast end up dead, unable to come to terms with their circumstances or to tolerate each other.

"Even by his standards, this must be a mortality record.

"There seems to be nothing left, nothing at all.

"But there is a chance, just a small one. When we need to start again, we take hands."

He adds: "It would be a sentimental thing to see Edgar and Albany, the play's only survivors, take hands at the end of Lear - for one thing Audiences should be warned that though the weather outside has been somewhat tropical of late, the air conditioning in Richmond Theatre is working very well.

King Lear by the Royal Dengate and Northampton group is at Richmond Theatre until May 14. Tickets available from ATGtickets.com/Richmond.

Your Local Guardian: