Word: lear
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...most controversial performance is Eugene Gervasi's Fool. Gervasi's every moment was tremendously stylized, to the point where he seemed to have rehearsed in someone else's production. But he spoke better than most, and his mournful grace made a good foil for Lear's frenzy. Only in the scene on the heath did his method fail...
...aside from Scott, the finest acting was by Mark Mirsky and Arthur Lewis, as Gloucester and Kent. Gloucester is essentially a less exalted and more human Lear; Mirsky sustained this perfectly, and managed to dodder convincingly in the bargain. Lewis made a secondary role important with a stalwart, knowledgeable and nicely articulated performance...
...play could not go very far wrong with Harold Scott in the title role; for the greater part of the evening his performance is unbeatable. Scott brings out the wry eerieness of the mad Lear beautifully, without indulging in the cheaper kind of shock effects. He is even better in the pathos and grandeur of the last scenes, in which he is nicely complemented by Mikel Lambert's Cordelia...
Only in the first scene can there be any avil with Scott. Here Lear emerges as a hard old man, virile and violent, and with only occasional traces of madness or senility. It is difficult to conceive of this Lear surrendering any part of his kingdom; he is a rash old reprobate living out his life at the top of his lungs...
...Eyre's Lear, then, has a great many attractive features, some excellent actors, and the Great Scott. But it also has its serious flaws; a production which might have been memorable is only notable...