The set, a stage-sized empty bleached-plank box, was fine as a blank canvas for the actors to fill with their verbal pictures. But I suspect it was partly responsible for acoustic problems.

Footfall was noisy on the wooden surface and the words or word endings from many of the actors did not escape beyond the footlights.

Exceptions were Derek Jacobi as King Lear, although in a visually mesmerising scene in the middle of a storm, his whispered words vanished; Michael Hadley as the Earl of Kent and Pippa Bennett-Warner as Lear’s youngest daughter Cordelia. But director Michael Grandage’s version of one of Shakespeare’s most ambitious dramas, edited by him with David Hunt, is gripping and the almost three hours (including the interval) flash by.

One could say Lear embraces life, the universe and everything. It shows the devastating effect of misused power, jealousy and ambition and simple human frailty.

The direction is brisk and the descent into madness, chaos, bloody treachery and revenge is swift and graphic.

Jacobi’s magnetism often puts anyone on stage with him in virtual shadow.

Except towards the end of the play, when Lear begs forgiveness from Cordelia, the connection between Jacobi and Bennett-Warner is riveting. The silence in the auditorium was absolute.

Jacobi paces his words so that their sense is crystal clear. Unlike some of his colleagues, he is in no hurry. He is the reason the production is sold out and with complete justification.

Alec Newman as Edmund the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester (Paul Jesson) is a convincingly nasty piece of work. Gwilym Lee as his legitimate brother Edgar showcases his versatility as he feigns madness to escape his persecutors.

Gina McKee and Justine Mitchell as Cordelia’s sisters Goneril and Regan, scheme and plot and bitch with believable venom.

It’s an accessible interpretation of a very complex play.