User:AndyJones/King Lear

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Cordelia and the Fool

In the Trevor Nunn production of King Lear, which was shown on PBS and stars Ian McKellen, the play is slightly revised so that the Fool (portrayed by Sylvester McCoy) is hanged on stage, just after Gloucester is captured by Cornwall's men.

Performance history

Engraving depicting Ludwig Devrient as King Lear, probably from Jean-François Ducis' production

The first recorded performance on December 26, 1606 is the only one known with certainty from Shakespeare's era. The play was revived soon after the theatres re-opened after the 1660 Restoration, and was played in its original form as late as 1675. But the urge to adapt and change that was so liberally applied to Shakespeare's plays in that period eventually settled on Lear as on other works. Nahum Tate produced an adaptation in 1681: he gave the play a happy ending, with Edgar and Cordelia marrying, and Lear restored to kingship. The Fool was eliminated altogether, and Arante, a confidant for Cordelia, was added. This was the version acted by Thomas Betterton, David Garrick, and Edmund Kean, and praised by Samuel Johnson. The play was suppressed in the late 18th and early 19th century by the British government, which disliked the dramatization of a mad monarch at a time when George III was suffering mental impairment. The original text did not return to the London stage until William Charles Macready's production of 1838. Other actors who were famous as King Lear in the nineteenth century were Samuel Phelps and Edwin Booth.

20th Century

The play is among the most popular of Shakespeare’s works to be staged in the 20th century. The most famous staging may be the 1962 production directed by Peter Brook, with Paul Scofield as Lear and Alec McCowen as The Fool. In a 2004 opinion poll of members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Scofield's Lear was voted as the greatest performance in a Shakespearean play in the history of the RSC and immortalized on film in 1971. The longest Broadway run of King Lear was the 1968 production with Lee J. Cobb as Lear, Stacy Keach as Edmund, Philip Bosco as Kent, and Rene Auberjonois as the Fool. It ran for 72 performances: no other Broadway production of the play has run for as many as 50 performances. A Soviet film adaptation was done by Mosfilm in 1971, directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with black-and-white photography and a score by Shostakovich. The script was based on a translation by Boris Pasternak, and Estonian actor Jüri Järvet played the mad king.

Other famous actors played Lear in the twentieth century.

• Laurence Olivier decided to tackle the role for the second time at the age of 75 in a television production in 1983 with an all-star cast that included Colin Blakely as Kent, Diana Rigg as Regan, and John Hurt as the Fool. At the age of 39 Olivier had played Lear previously in 1946 at the Old Vic, but his performance was generally considered a disappointment and overshadowed in the production by Alec Guinness' depiction of The Fool. His 1983 Lear was telecast in the United States in 1984 as a two hour and forty minute production and was widely acclaimed; Olivier received the last of his several Emmy Awards as Best Actor for his performance.
• John Gielgud was 26 when he first played Lear at the Old Vic in 1931 and played the role in three additional stage productions, including a controversial 1955 Stratford Memorial Theatre production designed by sculptor Isamu Noguchi. He was 90 when he took on the part for the final time in a 1994 radio production with a cast that included Judi Dench, Kenneth Branagh, and Derek Jacobi.
• Orson Welles starred in a live television version directed by Peter Brook (now preserved on kinescope) in 1953 for CBS. This production condensed the play to 90 minutes by eliminating the Edgar-Edmund subplot. Welles again played Lear at the New York Civic Center in 1958, breaking his ankle during previews and having to play most of the performances in a wheelchair.
• Donald Wolfit was considered one of the great Lears, playing the role on Broadway and for the Royal Shakespeare Company, keeping it in his repertory for more than 10 years.
• Ian Holm won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance of Lear at the Royal National Theatre and an Emmy nomination for the 1997 television version. Minimalist sets put the focus on the acting.
• James Earl Jones played Lear in the New York Shakespeare Festival, with Raúl Juliá as Edmund, Paul Sorvino as Gloucester, and Rene Auberjonois as Edgar. The production was videotaped and telecast in 1974 by PBS.
• Michael Hordern played Lear in the BBC Television Shakespeare series.
• William Devlin starred in a drastically shortened live television version in 1948, directed by Royston Morley.

21st Century

Michael D Jacobs as King Lear, in a Carmel Shake-speare Festival production at the Forest Theater, Carmel, Ca, 1999

The first great 21st century Lear may be Christopher Plummer, who became the first actor to receive a Tony Award nomination for playing Lear in the 2004 Broadway production at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.

Ian McKellen (who had previously appeared as Edgar and Kent, winning a Drama Desk Award for the former) was triumphant as Lear in April 2007, with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This production was taken on a world tour with a cast that included Romola Garai as Cordelia, Sylvester McCoy as the Fool, Frances Barber as Goneril, Monica Dolan as Regan, William Gaunt as Gloucester, and Jonathan Hyde as Kent. It continued at the New London Theatre, Drury Lane, where it ended its run on 12 January 2008 and netted McKellen a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. The production, which was directed by Trevor Nunn and produced by Phil Cameron and was alternated with The Seagull, was later videotaped and broadcast on Great Performances on PBS, garnering McKellen an Emmy Award nomination.

Other recent Lears:

• David Warner, Minerva Studio, Sussex, UK, 2005.
• Kevin Kline, New York Shakespeare Festival, 2007.
• Pete Postlethwaite, the Young Vic, London, UK, 2009.
• Stacy Keach, Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, 2009.
• Greg Hicks, the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon, UK, 2010.
• Derek Jacobi, The Donmar Warehouse, London, UK, 7 December 2010 through 3 February 2011, to be followed by an 8 week UK tour and then 6 weeks at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York from 28 April-5 June 2011, with a cast that includes Gina Mckee as Goneril, Justine Mitchell as Regan, Pippa Bennett-Warner as Cordelia, Ron Cook as the fool, Michael Hadley as Kent, and Paul Jesson as Gloucester.

Adaptations and cultural references

• Portions of a radio performance of the play on BBC Radio 3 in the UK were used by John Lennon in The Beatles' song "I Am the Walrus", starting at about the halfway point, but most audible towards the end and during the long fadeout. Lennon added the BBC audio (live as it was being broadcast) during mixing of the track. The character Oswald's exhortation, "bury my body", as well as his lament, "O, untimely death!" (Act IV, Scene VI) were interpreted by fans as further pieces of evidence that band member Paul McCartney was dead.
• A lake in Watermead Country Park, Leicestershire is named King Lear's Lake, owing to its proximity of the legendary burial tomb of King Leir. A statue in the lake depicts the final scene of Shakespeare's play.
• The Liverpool based band The Wombats make reference to the play in their song "Lost in the Post."
• At the beginning of the video game Final Fantasy IX, the play 'I Want To Be Your Canary' played in front of Queen Brahne is heavily inspired from King Lear (the two plays share both the characters' names and the plot).
• Canadian band The Tragically Hip have a song called "Cordelia" inspired by King Lear on their album Road Apples
• In the film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Mr. Magorium attempts to explain his death to Mahoney by using the words "He dies" from act five.
• Exiled Theatre performed a prequel to King Lear entitled "Edmund, Son of Gloucester" in 1996.

Adaptations

A number of significant and diverse readings have emerged from eras and societies since the play was first written; evidence of the ability of Shakespeare to encompass many human experiences. The play was poorly received in the 17th century because the theme of fallen royalty was too close to the events of the period; the exile of the court to France. In 1681 Nahum Tate rewrote King Lear to suit a 17th century audience: Tate's The History of King Lear changed Shakespeare's tragedy into a love story with a happy ending. The King of France and the Fool are omitted; Edgar saves Cordelia from ruffians on the heath; Lear defeats the assassins sent to kill him and Cordelia, and Edgar and Cordelia are betrothed in a final scene, where Edgar declares that "Truth and Virtue shall at last succeed."

As society and time changed, especially in the nineteenth century, Shakespeare's tragic ending was reinstalled, first, briefly, by Edmund Kean in 1823, then by William Charles Macready in 1834. Macready removed all traces of Tate in an abridged version of Shakespeare's text in 1838, and Samuel Phelps restored the complete Shakespearean version in 1845.

The only recent production of Tate's version was staged by the Riverside Shakespeare Company in 1985, directed by W. Stuart McDowell, at The Shakespeare Center in New York City.

Critical analysis

The twentieth century saw a number of diverse and rich readings of the play emerge as a result of the turbulent social changes of the century. A. C. Bradley saw this play as an individual coming to terms with his personality; that Lear was a great man and therefore the play is almost unfathomable.

The Family Drama reading has also become prevalent in the 20th century. King Lear can be read as being about the dynamics in the relationship between parent and children. Key issues include the relationship between Lear and Goneril/Regan, between Lear and Cordelia and the relationship between Gloucester and his sons.

The play has been interpreted by many societies. Communist Russia emphasised the suffering of the common people and the oppressive nature of the monarch in the film Korol Lear (Король Лир 1970).

Lear's suffering as a form of purgatory, within a shifting religious landscape in contemporary England, has also been put forward and has been extended onto other Shakespeare dramas like Hamlet.

Reworkings

Since the 1950s, there have been various "reworkings" of King Lear. These include:

Novels

• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, set on a large American farm
• Fool by Christopher Moore, a reworking of the story told from the fool's point of view.

Graphic Novels

• Ian Pollock's King Lear, 1984 Black Dog & Leventhal publishing Google Books link
• Manga Shakespeare's King Lear, 2009 Amulet / SelfMadeHero. Adapted by R. Appignanesi, Illustrated by ILYA link
• Gareth Hinds' King Lear, 2008 TheComic.com link and 2009 Candlewick Press link

Plays

• The play Lear by Edward Bond
• The play Lear's Daughters by W. T. G. and Elaine Feinstein
• The play Seven Lears by Howard Barker
• The play Lear Reloaded by Scot Lahaie
• The play Aspects of Lear directed by Joseph Timko
• The Play The Fool, by Christopher Moore, retells the story of King Lear from the perspective of The Black Fool.
• The Play The History of King Lear by Nahum Tate
• The Play God's Weep by Dennis Kelly
• The Play Edmund, Son of Gloucester by Chris Lambert

Films

• The film The King Lear, directed by Grigori Kozintsev, Russia
• The film The King is Alive, directed by Kristian Levring
• The film Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa, set in Sengoku period Japan
• The film The Last Lear, directed by Rituparno Ghosh, based on the life of an aging thespian, set in modern Bollywood

Film adaptations

• 1909 – A silent, black and white film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and William V. Ranous, with William V. Ranous as Lear.
• 1916 – Directed by Ernest C. Warde, with Frederick Warde as Lear.
• 1934 – Der Yidisher Kenig Lear (The Yiddish King Lear) is an adaptation of Jacob Gordin's play set in Vilna, Lithuania, directed by Harry Thomashefsky.
• 1949 – Gunasundari Katha, a Telugu film directed by Kadiri Venkata Reddy. The pivotal role of Cordelia was played by Sriranjani.
• 1953 - Peter Brook directed a heavily abridged version of the play as part of the U.S. television series Omnibus, with Orson Welles in the lead role.
• 1954 – Broken Lance, a western adaptation by Richard Murphy (screenplay) and Philip Yordan (story).
• 1969 – Directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with Jüri Järvet as Lear. Russian version; original title Korol Lir.
• 1971 – Directed by Peter Brook, with Paul Scofield as Lear, Alan Webb as Duke of Gloucester, Irene Worth as Goneril, Susan Engel as Regan, Anne-Lise Gabold as Cordelia, Jack MacGowran as Fool. The text has been severely cut and the remainder has been reassembled. All is bleak in this black-and-white, existential experience.
• 1974 – A Thames Television production, directed by Tony Davenall, with Patrick Magee as Lear.
• 1975 – Directed by Jonathan Miller for BBC television, as part of the "Play for the Month" series, with Michael Hordern as Lear.
• 1982 – Directed by Jonathan Miller for BBC television, with Michael Hordern once again cast as Lear. Part of the Shakespeare Plays series, this version follows the text closely.
• 1984 – Directed by Michael Elliott, with Laurence Olivier as Lear. The film begins and ends at Stonehenge, and features Dorothy Tutin as Goneril, Diana Rigg as Regan, Anna Calder-Marshall as Cordelia, John Hurt as the Fool, Colin Blakely as Kent, Leo McKern as Gloucester, and Robert Lindsay as Edmund. [1]. Olivier won the Emmy Award for his performance.
• 1985 – The film Ran by Akira Kurosawa is loosely based on King Lear, setting the story in Sengoku-period Japan and replacing the three daughters with three sons.
• 1987 – Jean-Luc Godard directed his own heavily altered and re-imagined adaptation of King Lear.
• 1997 – A Thousand Acres, a film version of Jane Smiley's novel, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and starring Jason Robards, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Colin Firth.
• 1998 – Directed by Richard Eyre and starring Ian Holm as Lear. Aired on BBC television and later on PBS as a part of the Masterpiece Theatre series.
• 1999 – Directed by and starring Brian Blessed as Lear.
• 2001 – My Kingdom stars Richard Harris and Lynn Redgrave. A modern, gangland version of King Lear.
• 2002 – King of Texas, a television adaptation set in frontier Texas, directed by Uli Edel, with Patrick Stewart as John Lear.
• 2007 – Baby Cakes Sees a Play, Brad Neely's retelling of King Lear through the eyes of Baby Cakes.
• 2009 – A videotaped version of the 2007 Royal Shakespeare Company production was shown on PBS, featuring Ian McKellen as Lear.
• 2012 – King Lear – To be directed by Michael Radford, with Al Pacino as Lear.

Opera

• Re Lear by Antonio Cagnoni (1893) First execution ever in Martina Franca (2009)

Costantino Finucci (Re Lear), Serena Daolio (Cordelia), Eufemia Tufano (Regana), Rasha Talaat (il Matto), Danilo Formaggia (Edgaro), Mebonia Vladimer (Conte di Gloster), Leone Maria (Gonerilla), Coletta Gianni (Duca di Cornovaglia), Domenico Colaianni (Conte di Kent), Cristian Camilo Navarro Diaz (Edmondo), il Coro Slovacco di Bratislava, l’Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia. Direttore Massimiliano Caldi, regista Francesco Esposito. Coreografie di Domenico Iannone, scene di Nicola Rubertelli, costumi di Maria Carla Ricotti.

• Lear by Aribert Reimann (1978)
• In the 1960s Benjamin Britten intended to write a King Lear opera, but the project was abandoned.
• Wu Hsing-kuo (吳興國) of Taiwan's Contemporary Legend Theatre (當代傳奇劇場) created a Peking Opera adaptation of King Lear in the late 1990s, after the theatre troupe's critically acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, Kingdom of Desire (慾望城國). Wu plays all the parts in this Mandarin Chinese adaptation, which toured Europe, Asia and the United States from 2000-2007.
• Promised End by Alexander Goehr (2010)

Audio

• King Lear Naxos Audiobooks, 2002. Cast: Paul Scofield, Alec McCowen, Kenneth Branagh, Harriet Walter, Sara Kestelman, Emilia Fox, Toby Stephens.
• The Tragedy of King Lear Caedmon Records, 1965. Cast: Paul Scofield, Cyril Cusack, Rachel Roberts, Pamela Brown, Ann Bell, John Stride, Robert Stephens, Wallas Eaton, John Rogers, Trevor Martin, Michael Aldridge, Andrew Kier, Arthur Hewlett, Ronnie Stevens, Willoughby Goddard, and Ronald Ibbs. Dir: Howard Sackler

Notable performers as King Lear

Charles Hay Cameron as King Lear (1872) / print by A. L. Coburn

• Alfredo Alcón
• Brian Bedford
• John Bell, with Leah Purcell as Regan
• Fran Bennett, All female production of Lear, California Institute of the Arts, Directed by Travis Preston
• Richard Briers, with Emma Thompson as his fool
• Richard Burbage
• Lee J. Cobb
• Brian Cox
• John Cullum
• Daniel Davis
• Yehia El-Fakharany in an Arabic translation of the play.
• Michael Gambon, with Antony Sher as his fool
• John Gielgud
• Greg Hicks
• Hal Holbrook
• Ian Holm
• Anthony Hopkins
• Michael Hordern in two separate television productions
• William Hutt
• Derek Jacobi
• James Earl Jones
• Stacey Keach
• Kevin Kline
• Shriram Lagoo in a Marathi translation of the play named Raja Lear (Marathi:राजा लिअर)
• Ian McKellen, with Romola Garai as Cordelia, Frances Barber as Goneril, and Monica Dolan as Regan
• Tatsuya Nakadai in Akira Kurosawa's Ran
• Laurence Olivier, with Alec Guinness as the Fool in one production, and John Hurt in a televised production
• Samuel Phelps
• Christopher Plummer
• Pete Postlethwaite
• Paul Scofield
• Robert Stephens
• Patrick Stewart
• Peter Ustinov
• Orson Welles
• Donald Wolfit
• Wu Hsing-kuo (吳興國) in the Peking Opera adaptation <<李爾在此>>

Moved from King Lear 15 Oct 11

A 2008 TV film for Channel 4 and PBS starred Ian McKellen as Lear.