Lively Joyce Conway is happy with her life: her boyfriend Conor loves her, she enjoys her job behind the scenes at the local radio station and her relationship to father could not be better. But everything is turned upside down after she has an accident requiring a blood transfusion. She subsequently wakes up with memories that are not hers.

An aged king decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, according to which of them is most eloquent in praising him. His favourite, Cordelia, says nothing. Simon Russell Beale, whose recent appearances at the National include Timon of Athens and Collaborators, takes the title role in Shakespeare’s tragedy.