Showing @ Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh until Mon 18 Aug @ 20:00

Back in the 70s, Thomas Bernhard took the idea of King Lear – an old man with the weight of past expectations on his sagging shoulders – and deposited him in a Austrian hotel reception. In Tom Cairns’ production we see Minetti awaiting a meeting with a theatre director in freezing Ostend, hopeful that he’ll be reviving his celebrated performance of Lear in nearby Flensburgh. An initial thought is that one would far rather be watching Shakespeare’s tragedy. Against insights into human frailty, wickedness and the inability to judge correctly, the endless discussions on the artist and what he must do in society falls rather flat.

This verdict proves unfair, however, and goes as the play settles into itself. Minetti is a pompous character, obsessed with his own view of the world – but as cracks appear in the façade and a madness sets in, events become more interesting and the language far richer. There’s a hum-drum sort of threat that builds throughout – like a wasps nest, buzzing faintly but always present, and always aggressive.

It is, despite a sizeable cast, a one-man show – the script almost entirely monologue. The majority of the actors have no lines and must constantly react to events, rather than cause them. It’s much harder than it might appear and it’s to the whole cast’s credit that the painted world is entirely believable.

But Peter Eyre is required to carry the show, which he does with restrained energy and a great deal of subtlety. He fusses over, commands, dictates to and charms fellow guests and porters, before finally wandering into the snowy wilderness, clutching his Lear mask to the end. Unlike Shakespeare, there’s no eventual resumption of order – only the howling of the wind.

Showing as part of the Edinburgh International Festival 2014