King Lear

Content Group

Overview

As Reginald Foakes has argued, King Lear has probably replaced Hamlet as Shakespeare's most admired play because of its recognition of the broadest range of human relationships. Nevertheless, the play has usually been mutilated in performance. Shakespeare's downbeat ending of the plot with the deaths of Lear and Cordelia (in contrast to his sources) has oppressed so many that it was often played with Nahum Tate's happy ending: with Edgar marrying Cordelia and Lear restored; the Fool eliminated and Arante added as confidant for Cordelia. This version was acted by Thomas Betterton, David Garrick, and Edmund Kean, and preferred by Samuel Johnson. The play was even suppressed for a time when George III was suffering mental impairment. Macready's production of 1838 restored the original text. However, distortions remain customary in stage and film productions. The famous 1962 film production by Peter Brook, with Paul Scofield as Lear and Alan McCowan as the Fool, pessimistically omits Edmund's repentance. In contrast, Kozintsev's film suppresses the attempted suicide of Gloucester and Lear's hint at the Fool's death. Actors and directors tend to see the ranting scenes and supposed madness as the play's core, rather than Lear's acquiring of wry humor in the face of disaster (yet significantly the Folio text cut Lear's most hallucinatory scene: the trial of Goneril and Regan). The contrastingly positive role of Edgar is often under-stressed—but it provided a hopeful conclusion to Kozintsev's film; and Branagh cast himself as Edgar in his staged version. (See The Tragicomedy of King Lear as well as Performing King Lear: Researching a Plot Sequence.)

Images

King Lear: National Theatre, London, 1997

King Lear: Paul Scholfield as Lear, Alec McCowen as the Fool

King Lear (Jeffrey DeMunn) at the Bruns Theatre: California Shakespeare Theatre, 2007.

King Lear: Royal Shakespeare Company, November 1976.

Pages

Slideshows

Performing King Lear: Researching a Plot Sequence

Play Settings: Prehistoric Britain

Bibliography

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KING LEAR AT SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE, 2008:

An affecting Lear at Shakespeare's Globe - Matt Wolf, New York Times

King Lear (Globe) - Maxwell Cooter, What's on Stage Review

King Lear at Shakespeare's Globe - Times Online

King Lear - Lizzie Loveridge, CurtainUp London

King Lear, Shakespeare's Globe, London - Paul Taylor, The Independent

King Lear, Shakespeare's Globe - The Sunday Times

King Lear: a mighty Lear in full-blooded glory - Charles Spencer, Telegraph

Reviews: King Lear - Lisa Childs, The Stage

Theatre: King Lear, Globe, London - Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

King Lear, Shakespeare's Globe (2008) - Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide

King Lear @ Shakespeare's Globe, London - Clair Whitefield, musicOMH