SOURCE: Weber, Bruce. Review of King Lear. New York Times (2 November 2001): E6.

In the following review, Weber evaluates Jan Lauwers's 2001 experimental interpretation of King Lear, noting the production's deconstructive approach to language and summarizing individual performances.

If poetry is crucial to your appreciation of Shakespeare, you can pass on the King Lear by the Belgian theater troupe Needcompany, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater through Sunday.

In fact, those who harbor expectations of any theatrical conventions at all would do well to abandon them before buying a ticket, lest the deconstructionist vision of the director, Jan Lauwers, drive them to the exits prematurely. Dozens of people at Wednesday night's opening performance obviously would have benefited from the warning.

With a trimmed script (the show runs just short of two and a half hours without intermission) and a cast of only 11 (two roles are doubled, with Josse...