In this interpretation Lithgow starts off with bluster when he rages at his daughter Cordelia (Jessica Collins) for not verbalizing her love for him, as his opportunistic daughters Goneril (Annette Bening) and Regan (Jessica Hecht) crassly do. Stripping Cordelia of her inheritance will come to haunt him.

The vigor of his performance at this point may seem a bit much for a ruler who is beginning to lose it, but it is a starting point from which Lithgow can make the descent into senility and powerless all the more upsetting and sad. By the time he carries the body of Cordelia on stage near the play’s end, he is a broken man, with visible anguish that touches our hearts. That is the moment that sums up his performance and leaves us with the appreciation for what this superb actor has wrought.

(John Gielgud, when once asked what the secret of playing Lear was, he is reported to have replied, “Get a light Cordelia.”)

It was a pleasure to see Bening on stage after enjoying her various film performances. She effectively communicates the wickedness of this sister. Hecht also succeeded in depicting the viciousness of Regan, but I have to say that her voice, more New York-sounding than Shakespearean, often annoyed me.

Among other cast members who excel include Clarke Peters as the Earl of Gloucester, whose eyes are cruelly stamped out; Chukwudi Iwuji as Gloucester’s son Edgar, later disguised as Poor Tom; Steven Boyer as Lear’s Fool, and Jay O. Sanders as the Earl of Kent, later disguised as Caius.

John Lee Beatty’s appropriate scenic design is grimly spare. The lighting designed by Jeff Croiter is smartly used in the context of the park location. One also has to commend the sound design, by Acme Sound Partners, both for enhancing the drama and for the absolute clarity with which the amplified dialogue can be heard throughout.