WE’RE in a land about to be torn asunder by power-hungry forces that will do anything to feed insatiable appetites for control.

Over this once proud land a failing narcissist of a ruler has made the greatest mistake of his life and must now stand by helplessly as rival factions fight like rabid dogs over the corpse of a nation.

So is this Britain after last week’s Brexit vote? Surprisingly enough, not on this occasion, for this is in fact a superlative staging of William Shakespeare’s King Lear and you might say that the timing couldn’t be better… or perhaps worse, depending on your point of view.

Shakespeare wrote this play in 1606, just months after the failed Gunpowder Plot that had come within an inch of blowing up King James, his parliament, and with all probability several thousand innocent Londoners as well.

Bearing this in mind, it would appear that the Bard was arguably sailing a bit close to the wind with his latest release, because a piece about a stupid and vain king was hardly going to endear you to a ruler who had just escaped being blown to smithereens by the tip of his carefully coiffured beard.

Michael Pennington as the king who can only find contentment when bathed in adoration is an absolute colossus, bellowing ever-more frantic commands as the ordure starts to hit the national fan.

The cause of his misery – and everyone else’s for that matter – is his seemingly endless capacity for delusion and it’s not long before the paranoia makes scapegoats of all around him.

Gloucester (Pip Donaghy) suffers an awful fate at the hands of the opportunistic Cornwall (Shane Attwooll) and it should be made clear that this horrifically realistic episode is most definitely not for those of a squeamish disposition. So be warned.

As for the two ugly sisters Goneril and Regan (Catherine Bailey and Sally Scott respectively) they prove beyond doubt that there’s no fool like an old fool, their false flattery falling in torrents that easily wash away the king’s grasp on reality.

But happily, Joshua Elliott’s concertina-playing Fool softens the blows, dagger thrusts and eye-gougings, like a kind of Jacobean Boris Johnson suddenly turning up at some endless council meeting and rescuing everyone from the sheer tedium of any other business.

King Lear runs until Saturday (July 2) and although a bit seat-squirmingly long at two hours 55 minutes, provides confirmation that Shakespeare may have been dead for four centuries but his legacy most certainly won’t go the way of all things.

Dates: From 27 June To 02 July 2016
Times: Evenings at 7.30pm
Wed and Sat matinees at 2.30pm

Price: £17.92-£34.72 (including 12% booking fee)

Venue: Festival Theatre