IT wouldn’t be too difficult to squish up your eyes, forget the digital age and imagine Shakespeare’s troupe of actors arriving at Richmond’s tiny Georgian theatre to perform King Lear. I’m sure Shakespeare would approve of his play being performed in such an intimate space.

The touring arm of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London is using an Elizabethan-style booth stage, inspired by paintings and etchings from Shakespeare’s time, when bands of touring players were prevalent. Eight actors will visit inspiring settings across the UK, Europe and the US with this scaled-down production.

If Shakespeare is the engine that drives theatre then The Globe’s award-winning small-scale touring is turbo charged with an already acclaimed production of King Lear. Directed by Bill Buckhurst, the title role will be played by Joseph Marcell, best known as Geoffrey in the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Joining him as Gloucester is the British stage and screen actor John Stahl, who appeared in popular TV show Game of Thrones as Rickard Karstark.

Lear, the ageing king of Britain, decides to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three daughters. First, however, he puts his daughters through a test, asking each to tell him how much she loves him. Lear’s older daughters give flattering answers. But Cordelia, Lear’s youngest and favourite daughter, remains silent, saying that she has no words to describe how much she loves her father. Lear flies into a rage, discovering too late the false values by which he’s lived and is ultimately plunged into despair and madness.

King Lear is tempestuous poetry shot through with moments of humour and heart-rending simplicity. This tragedy is particularly significant for its probing observations on the nature of human suffering and kinship. George Bernard Shaw wrote: “No man will ever write a better tragedy than Lear.”

Director Bill Buckhurst is well-known at Shakespeare’s Globe, where he has recently directed Hamlet with Dominic Dromgoole. In Globe Education’s annual Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank series, he played Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing and has directed Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

  • King Lear runs from August 27 to 30 with evening and matinee shows. Box Office: 01748-825252 georgiantheatreroyal.co.uk