President bereft of a Shakespearean character (5)
I believe the answer is:
regan
'shakespearean character' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'president bereft of a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'reg' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for regan that I've seen before include "king's daughter" , "Possessed gir" , "daughter seeking power" , "Princess" , "Lear's daughter" .)