'A bitter fool' King Lear The lobby of a grand hotel, New Year's Eve. A snow storm rages. Minetti, a long-forgotten actor, arrives in great spirits to discuss his comeback as King Lear with a theatre director.

While he waits patiently in the hotel lobby, Minetti's obsessive personality reveals itself in a series of strange encounters with other guests. He rails against outrageous fortune and unfulfilled ambitions, often colliding with crowds of young hotel guests who frequently burst in to celebrate New Year's Eve. As with King Lear, the storm which rages outside reflects his turbulent emotions until he finally finds peace and resolution.

Director Tom Cairns brings Thomas Bernhard's rarely performed masterpiece to life, in a moving portrait of a once celebrated actor now isolated and forgotten. Starring Peter Eyre as Minetti, the production is a collaboration with two of the world's great dramatic institutions: the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, and The Juilliard School, New York, whose young actors provide an anarchic presence throughout.

Eyre's exquisitely understated performance is a masterclass in how to make something very hard look effortless

The Guardian

Philosophical, funny...irresistably comic, but moving...It blew me away

The Times on Tom Cairns's Scenes From an Execution

An Edinburgh International Festival production