King Lear — and yet so far

How the mighty have fallen. At the end of Titas Halder’s new production of King Lear at the Crucible, we look upon the withered husk of an old man who was once a monarch – not to mention, in a galaxy far, far away, a feared emperor. This is Ian McDiarmid, best known for playing Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars franchise, whose return to Sheffield Theatres and this play after 21 years is the draw of this production. In the intervening decades, he has added more credits to his long stage career, spanning Manchester’s Royal Exchange, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Almeida, Royal Court and National Theatre in London – all those “Royal”s cementing his status as acting royalty.

His is also the first of two celebrity names helming a Shakespeare double bill at the Crucible; next month, he will be subbed out for Mathew Horne, who leads the same cast in Twelfth Night. However, at least for this production, the casting coup seems to have proven a poisoned chalice. McDiarmid was handed the unenviable task of outperforming himself in that 2005 production, which was met with five-star raves. Only rarely does he live up to that legacy here; mostly, it eludes him and paralyses the production around him. All the pieces are present, but they seem to cower in the face of the challenge. It is so Lear, and yet so far.