PRINCIPAL CAST: Anna Bolton (Goneril); Paul Copley (King Lear); Ben Deery (Edmund); Tyrone Huggins (Gloucester); Debbie Korley (Cordelia); Dharmesh Patel (Edgar).

The press release for the production describes it as a "new edited version of Shakespeare's tragedy [which] will be brought to life for schools, families and younger audiences. The production promises to be as accessible and thrilling as the RSC's previous Young People's Shakespeare (YPS) productions." The production toured in schools nationally and played internationally in New York and at Ohio State University from 16 October - 10 November 2012.

"A Christmas Day party with a nervous host in novelty jumper, a dogsbody dressed as Rudolph, and a chief guest who doffs his paper cracker crown for a Santa hat. Not what one expects of the opening scene of Shakespeare's great tragedy and the figures of Gloucester, Edmund and Lear respectively....[The primary school children] grew restive after half an hour or so, then were re-engaged by the first hovel-in-the-storm scene before falling off again when the focus switched back from Lear to the more sombre, orotund Gloucester (Tyrone Huggins)."  ~ Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times, 15 September 2009, in Theatre Record 2012, Issue 19

With Jonathan Pryce's Lear stewing nicely at the Almeida, Copley and co serve up a clever digest, though only the heartbreaking encouter between Tyrone Huggins's blinded Gloucester and Dharmesh Patel's devoted Edgar (disguised as Poor Tom, here as a streetwise hoodie) punches its full weight."  ~ Michael Coveney, Independent, 24 September 2012, in Theatre Record 2012, Issue 19