King Lear: Actors' Shakespeare Company

[redbird]

On the strong recommendation of xiphias and cheshyre, I bought tickets for myself and cattitude for the Actors' Shakespeare Company production of King Lear, transferred from Boston to La Mama E.T.C. It's a theatre-in-the-round (well, rectangle) production, and takes the approach to Shakespeare that I tend to like, namely very minimal scenery. I do wish the actors, particularly those playing Lear and Cordelia, had enunciated better.

The company used the space well: not only were entrances and exits frequently up and down stairs, but some of the action was on the stairs between the seats. In particular, at the beginning, when Edmund is told to step back, he simply sat down on the stair, about six feet from us. By the time everyone else had exited and he spoke, I'd forgotten he was there.

I not only hadn't seen Lear live before [1], but if I ever saw a filmed production, it was a long time ago, and I didn't remember details. More precisely, the details I remembered were the lines everyone quotes, not turns of the plot.

The emotional shape of the play is odd; the first half is a lot closer to comedy than Macbeth or Hamlet. It's not just that the Fool, as Cattitude pointed out, has the best lines, it's that everyone has comic lines. Then there's a storm, and everyone and everything turns a lot darker. By the end, I was thinking "if he [Edmund] survives the battle, we're in trouble." He does, of course.

A good production, if not quite as good as my Boston reviewers led me to expect, but I don't know if that was me or the play; transfers are always potentially iffy, and 3.5 hours is a long time to sit in a metal folding chair even with a fifteen-minute intermission during which I found space to do most of my shoulder and heel stretches.

I think I want to track down a good filmed Lear and put it in our Netflix queue, for a few weeks from now. Good defined for these purposes as minimal cuts, good acting, and clear speech. Period/costuming aren't important, and while I know there's no film equivalent of a bare stage, the focus should be on the language, not the landscape or the storm effects. Recommendations, please.

[1] Lots of Hamlets, multiple Macbeths, Tempests, and A Midsummer Night's Dreams, some very good variations on Romeo and Juliet, from West Side Story to Shakespeare's R and J, a four-man production set in a boys' boarding school, an assortment of histories and comedies, even Cymbeline, courtesy of the completists at the Public Theatre. Some of that is fashion: The Tempest was very popular about ten years ago. And some is probably chance.

Comments

[total-cynic.livejournal.com]

Just finished studying Lear for my equivanlent of high school finals over here in Ireland. If you were looking for a good version of filmed Lear i'd recommend the BBC production of it, it's older, but has sparse sets good costume and some superb acting, and all the enunciation is pretty clear if you're up to speed on shakespearian english.

[redbird]

Thanks.

Can you give me a date, director, or both? Stars? I wouldn't be at all surprised if the BBC has done more than one Lear over the decades; even if not, more information is better.

[total-cynic.livejournal.com]

Sorry my bad. The dvd is available on the bbc store site but if you're looking to download it's called
BBC Classic Shakespeare: King Lear
Screened, 1982
Starring, Michael Hordern as Lear, with Brenda Blethyn as Cordelia, Gillian Barge as Goneril, Penelope Wilton as Regan, Michael Kitchen as Edmund and Anton Lesser as Edgar.

Here's the product link for the bbc store for either more info or if you end up wanting to just buy it...
http://www.bbcshop.com/invt/bbcdvd1475&bklist=%3Cvenda_bklist1%3E

[pameladean]

I second the recommendation of the BBC Compleat Shakespeare's production.

Avoid Peter Hall's movie. It's worth watching at some point for historical pointers on how things can go wonky, but it's a really bad place to start or even to go on with initially.

P.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Avoid Peter Hall in general- his ego always gets the better of him

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

It's a fairly unfaithful transposition and big on spectacle, but Kurosawa's Ran is a magnificent film.

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

And has a great Fool.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

I was very impressed with Richard Eyre's 1998 BBC version of Lear with Ian Holm in the title role. It was aired the week after the Leeds Corflu and I saw it at the time. It's also been on TV in the US.

filmed Shakespeare

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

I don't know of any filmed 'Lear's' but the Kenneth Branagh 'Hamlet' always leaves me dumbstruck not only with the production but how it illuminates what an extraordinary play this is. The (re-constructed) Globe Theatre in London is doing Titus Andronicus this summer and the reviews all describe it as soooooooo bloody - not for children or the squeamish. - if you happen to be on the other side of the pond.