King Lear

King Lear (The Shed)

November 17, 2024

Firstly, the play has been shortened to two hours without any intermissions, when most recent productions have been three and a half hours with one intermission. This makes all of the events seem to take place too soon, one on top of the other, so that the sense of a world turned upside down is never felt in the production’s rush to the end. There is little sense of turning “the wheel of fortune” spoken of several times in the play. All the actors including the 63-year-old Branagh in the title role seem too young for their parts. While Lear describes himself as “a very foolish fond old man,” in fact, in this production he is a very vigorous and hearty leader, though capricious in his decisions. The supporting cast though excellent in their diction and authoritative in their roles seem lacking in technique to make the roles both interesting and their own. The low-key characterizations damage the play’s violence and viciousness. [more]

Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel

January 3, 2023

Under the direction of Karl Janes and Andy Smith, Tim Crouch is a very commanding performer, using his resonant baritone to paint pictures with words, holding our attention at all times. Narrating alone he makes us see all he describes from the theater, to the audience, to the landscape on stage and the other unseen actors. However, the play is not for all theatergoers simply because the format is complex and hard to follow and knowledge of the plot of "King Lear" is mandatory. On the other hand, for those who are into experimental theater, this is an exemplary model of the genre boldly pushing the envelope to what is possible. [more]

Lear: That Old Man I Used to Know

September 14, 2019

Hopkins had added selections from Lewis Carroll (references to the Jabberwock and “The White Knight’s Song: The Aged Age Man,” the poem which gives her the new title), Emily Dickinson (“I’m Nobody! Who are you?”), Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses” (“To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield”), and unidentified poems from Dylan Thomas. Aside from the fact that these are several centuries newer, all of these have a different rhythm than Shakespeare’s Lear. The music credits include Satie’s “Gymnopedie” No. 1, Chopin’s “Nocturne in E minor,” excepts from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, and “Ombra mai fu” from Handel’s opera Serse. The most outstanding problem is that we have other associations with this material so that they stick out like a sore thumb. [more]

King Lear

May 7, 2019

As the elderly king of Britain who deludedly decides to give up his kingdom to his three daughters, Goneril and Regan, the two older married ones, and Cordelia, his younger unmarried daughter, in exchange for their regaling him before his court with how much they love him, the 83-year-old Jackson dressed in Ann Roth’s fitted tuxedo and with a severe masculine haircut would seem believable casting. However in the first half of the evening (Acts I-III) which take about two hours, Jackson is nothing but haughty, sarcastic and arrogant, with little or no variety. In the production’s second half when the king who has been turned out of the castles of both married daughters (Cordelia having left the country to marry the King of France), Jackson seems mad but wise and more compassionate, turning the king’s anger on himself, but it is too little, too late. [more]

King Lear (Royal Shakespeare Company)

April 20, 2018

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s latest "King Lear," as directed by Gregory Doran, is one that needs no explanation and no program notes. At one and the same time both medieval and contemporary, this production solves many of the questions that often go unanswered. In a glorious cap to his distinguished career, Sir Antony Sher gives a memorably luminous and unambiguous performance in the title role which should stand as a bar by which others will be measured. This is not only the perfect starting point for those unfamiliar with the play but also an excellent and notable interpretation for those who know it well. [more]