If you're an elderly king who, in your desire to continue doing fun kingly stuff without the associated hassle, decides to hand over the greatest share of your kingdom to whichever of your three daughters professes to love you the most, and two of those daughters don't love you as much they claim (in fact, they want to dispose of you), this does not bode well for a happy royal family. Indeed, it's more than likely that tragedy will ensue.

Tonight, the tragedy of King Lear was acted out by five people from the Creation Theatre Company; in itself this is a logistical mind-churner, without the added factor of having to perform amongst the shelves of a working bookshop. Nevertheless, the cast outdid themselves, with chameleon-like character changes facilitated by the most inventive use of garments I've seen in a while.

The central character, of course, is the king himself. As he bounds down a flight of stairs to his first encounter with us, Max Gold's Lear is sprightly, authoritative, somewhat egotistical, and prone to rages. Through senility, life trauma, or simply age, he transforms into spittle-infused dodderiness and trembling remorse. Whether he has truly become nobler and wiser, or whether, in his new, childlike state he has merely acquired that uncanny ability to speak the truth common to madmen, children, and those marked with the scent of mortality, is unclear. On occasions I struggled to hear his speech clearly. Michael Sheldon and Natasha Rickman were superb as Gloucester/Kent and the shrewish sisters Goneril/Regan, respectively; Morgan Philpott whirled through a myriad of roles, and Lucy Pearson's Fool surpassed her Cordelia.

In this production I sensed a contemporary worldliness outside of the domestic tragedy. Shakespeare's words speak about kingship, but Creation's sound effects, guns, and military uniform conjured up just as easily in my mind a post-Westphalian world with toxic combinations of alliance, duplicity and atrocity, magnified during conflict. This is just one example of how the production encouraged connection with the text, despite bits having clearly been cut to fit the 2.5 hour running time. The use of books (not Blackwells' own, I imagine) on stage was inspired, suggesting to me that the company really thinks about the place they use, that it is not just a gimmick; the staging was sympathetic to a 360 degree audience. These little touches have become characteristic of Creation's work.

It is 50 years since the creation of the Norrington Room, and twenty since the genesis of Creation. The collaboration between the two organisations was tonight fruitful and delightful, combining inventiveness with a quirky venue to create yet another quality performance. I can't wait to see more.

Creation lived up to their name in The Norrington Room last night with their latest production, King Lear. You know the tragedy: Lear gives away his kingdom to two of his daughters, Goneril and Regan, when they butter him up, while banishing the third one, Cordelia, because she refuses to play their sycophantic game. The giveaway backfires on Lear when he loses all his power and is mistreated by Goneril, Regan and their husbands. There is an equally powerful back story of the Earl of Gloucester and his sons Edgar and Edmund, one from either side of the blanket, who come to blows over his inheritance.

The scenes are set on a sloping platform, with a blasted tree, piles of books and a subterranean trapdoor. It's in a mixture of times: modern with electronic sampled music and communication; and ancient with swords and a blend of costumes. However, Creation's creative part comes largely through the minimalist cast. There are only five of them and they double, treble or quadruple up in playing the 15 speaking parts. This works really well most of the time. Quick prop changes enable the versatile Morgan Philpott to be a plausible Edmund, Oswald, Albany, Cornwall, and France. Natasha Rickman has a tougher time playing both Goneril and Regan as they are often on stage simultaneously. She achieves this with the rapid movement of props from arm-to-arm and a slightly different accent. It sounds unlikely, but she makes it believable for the most part. Max Gold is a powerful Lear, portraying the majesty and the decline into despair equally convincingly. He just has that main part and the short role of First Servant to contend with. Swift hat and glasses changes enable Michael Sheldon to jump believably from Kent to Gloucester to Burgundy, but it is as the Earl of Gloucester that he gives the audience the play's most memorable scene. You could say that he plays a blinder. The challenge of multiple roles is hardest on the most inexperienced member of the cast, Lucy Pearson, as she has to cope with Cordelia, the Fool and Edgar, and not only just Edgar, but also as Poor Tom, the persona Edgar takes on in hiding. She is an outstanding Fool and Poor Tom, a good willowy Cordleia, but she's too much of a waif to have her stand up realistically to chunky Edmund. Admittedly, there were a couple of laughable moments when characters had to talk to props on the stage as their actors could not be two or three characters at the same time, but apart from those few moments and the miscasting of Edgar, the multi-role approach is very successful.

Despite my very few reservations, King Lear is an interesting production, well acted and produced, with great music and effects and, of course, a brilliant location. Go and see it if you can!