King Lear (36 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
AND VIEWING
CRITICAL APPROACHES
Booth, Stephen,
King Lear, Macbeth, Indefinition and Tragedy
(1983). Not for beginners, but very penetrating.
Bradley, A. C.,
Shakespearean Tragedy
(1904). Still worth reading a century after publication.
Cavell, Stanley, “The Avoidance of Love,” in
Disowning Knowledge in Seven Plays of Shakespeare
(1987). A skeptical philosopher’s reading; still less for beginners, but so full of deep insight that it has claims to be among the best pieces ever written on the play.
Colie, Rosalie L., and F. T. Flahiff,
Some Facets of “King Lear”: Essays in Prismatic Criticism
(1974). An unusually strong collection of critical essays.
Danby, J. F.,
Shakespeare’s Doctrine of Nature
(1949). Contexts for Edmund.
Dollimore, Jonathan,
“King Lear
and Essentialist Humanism,” in
Radical Tragedy: Religion, Ideology and Power in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries
(1984). Inflected by neo-Marxist cultural politics.
Elton, William R.,
King Lear and the Gods
(1966). Useful contextualization in the intellectual history of Shakespeare’s time.
Empson, William, “Fool in
Lear,”
in
The Structure of Complex Words
(1951). Superb essay on a key word.
Goldberg, S. L.,
An Essay on King Lear
(1974). Consistently thoughtful.
Greenblatt, Stephen, “Shakespeare and the Exorcists,” in
Shakespeare Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England
(1988). Inventive account of why Shakespeare used an anti-Popish treatise for the mad language of Poor Tom.
Heilman, R. B.,
This Great Stage: Image and Structure in King Lear
(1963). Good account of image patterns.
Kermode, Frank, ed.,
King Lear: A Casebook
(1969). Fine collection of studies from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Kott, Jan,
Shakespeare Our Contemporary
(1964). The chapter on
King Lear
as a bleak, absurd drama analogous to Samuel Beckett’s
Endgame
has been hugely influential; Peter Brook saw an early version, which did much to shape his 1962 production.
Mack, Maynard,
King Lear in Our Time
(1966). Remains valuable in our time.
Taylor, Gary, and Michael Warren, eds.,
The Division of the Kingdoms: Shakespeare’s Two Versions of King Lear
(1983). Groundbreaking collection of essays on Quarto and Folio variants.
Brooke, Michael,
“King Lear
on Screen,”
www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/566346/index.html
. Overview of film versions.
Chambers, Colin,
Other Spaces: New Theatre and the RSC
(1980). Includes fine account of the powerfully intimate Buzz Goodbody production.
Jackson, Russell, and Robert Smallwood, eds,
Players of Shakespeare 2
(1988). Interviews with actors, including Antony Sher on playing the Fool in Adrian Noble’s production.
Leggatt, Alexander,
King Lear
, Shakespeare in Performance (1991). Good survey.
Ogden, James, and Arthur H. Scouten, eds,
Lear from Study to Stage: Essays in Criticism
(1997). Contains several illuminating essays.
Rosenberg, Marvin,
The Masks of King Lear
(1972). Many fascinating details of performances down the ages.
King Lear
, directed by Peter Brook (1970, DVD 2005). Bleak interpretation with magisterial performance by Paul Scofield.
King Lear (Korol Lir)
, directed by Grigori Kosintsev (1970, DVD 2007). Powerful Russian version.
King Lear
, directed by Jonathan Miller (BBC Television Shakespeare, 1982, DVD 2004). Michael Hordern as Lear in a reworking (with
fuller, perhaps overlong text) of an earlier television version by Miller, based ultimately on a stage production at Nottingham.
King Lear
, directed by Michael Elliott (Channel 4 Television, 1983, DVD 2007). Laurence Olivier’s last Shakespearean performance.
Ran
, directed by Akira Kurosawa (1985, DVD 2006). Epic Japanese adaptation in Samurai setting.
A Thousand Acres
, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (1997, DVD 2006). Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jennifer Jason Leigh in a film version of a novel by Jane Smiley that transposes the story to the American Midwest and tells it from the point of view of the three daughters.
King Lear
, directed by Richard Eyre (BBC2 Television 1998, DVD 2006). Filming of Eyre’s exemplary small-scale National Theatre production.
My Kingdom
, directed by Don Boyd (2001, DVD 2005). Richard Harris’ last role: the
Lear
plot transposed to the world of a twenty-first-century Liverpool drug baron.
1.
Gamini Salgado,
Eyewitnesses of Shakespeare: First Hand Accounts of Performances 1590–1890
(1975), p. 38.
2.
James Boswell, in a diary entry on 12 May 1763, in
Boswell’s London Journals: 1762–1763
, ed. Frederick A. Pottle (1950), pp. 256–7.
3.
George Steevens, review dated 16–18 February 1773, quoted in
Shakespeare, The Critical Heritage
, ed. Brian Vickers, vol. 5,
1765–1774
(1979), pp. 501–2.
4.
Leigh Hunt in an originally unsigned review of
King Lear
in
The Examiner
, No. 21, 22 May 1808, pp. 331–3.
5.
The Times
, review of
King Lear
, 25 April 1820.
6.
William Hazlitt, in a
London Magazine
review of June 1820.
7.
William Hazlitt, in a
London Magazine
review of May 1820.
8.
John Forster, “The Restoration of Shakespeare’s Lear to the Stage,”
The Examiner
, No. 1566, 4 February 1838, pp. 69–70.
9.
“Review of
King Lear,” The Athenaeum
, No. 1066, 1 April 1848, p. 346.
10.
William Winter, “The Art of Edwin Booth: King Lear,” in his
Life and Art of Edwin Booth
(1893), pp. 177–85.
11.
Henry James, “Tommaso Salvini,”
The Atlantic Monthly
, Vol. LI, No. CCCV, March 1883, pp. 377–86.
12.
John Gielgud, “Granville Barker Rehearses
King Lear
,” in his
Stage Directions
(1963, repr. 1979), pp. 51–5.
13.
James Agate, review of
King Lear
in
Brief Chronicles: A Survey of the Plays of Shakespeare and the Elizabethans in Actual Performance
(1943, repr. 1971), pp. 201–3.
14.
The Times
, review of
King Lear
, 21 April 1936.
15.
W. A. Darlington, “Old Vic at Home,”
New York Times
, 13 October 1946.
16.
Alan Brien, “Simulation in the Fields,”
The Spectator
, Vol. 203, No. 6843, 21 August 1959, pp. 223–4.
17.
Maynard Mack,
King Lear in Our Time
(1966).
18.
James Ogden, “Introduction,” in
Lear from Study to Stage: Essays in Criticism
, ed. James Ogden and Arthur H. Scouten (1997).
19.
Illustrated London News
, Vol. 241, No. 6433, 17 November 1962.
20.
Stephen J. Philips, “Akira Kurosawa’s
Ran,”
in
Lear from Study to Stage
,p. 102.
21.
Benedict Nightingale,
New Statesman
, 3 December 1976.
22.
Sheridan Morley,
Daily Express
, 2 July 2004.
23.
Tom Piper,
King Lear
, RSC Online Playguide, 2004.
24.
Corin Redgrave,
King Lear
, RSC Online Playguide, 2004.
25.
Benedict Nightingale, “Some Recent Productions,” in
Lear from Study to Stage
, p. 236.
26.
John Peter,
Sunday Times
, 31 October 1999.
27.
Michael Billington,
Guardian
, 30 October 1999.
28.
Colin Chambers,
Other Spaces: New Theatre and the RSC
(1980), p. 71.
29.
Nightingale, “Some Recent Productions,” p. 232.
30.
Irving Wardle,
Independent
, 15 July 1990.
31.
David Fielding, designer of the 1990 production, in interview with Lynne Truss,
Independent
, 8 July 1990.
32.
John Gross,
Sunday Telegraph
, 15 July 1990.
33.
Michael Billington,
Guardian
, 13 July 1990.
34.
Note in
King Lear
, RSC program, 1993.
35.
Irving,
Independent
, 15 July 1990.
36.
Chambers,
Other Spaces
, p. 69.
37.
Michael Billington,
Guardian
, 30 June 1982.
38.
Billington,
Guardian
, 30 June 1982.
39.
David Nathan,
Jewish Chronicle
, 9 July 1982.
40.
James Fenton,
Sunday Times
, 4 July 1982.
41.
Antony Sher, “The Fool in King Lear,” in
Players of Shakespeare 2
, ed. Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood (1988).
42.
Adrian Noble, interview for
King Lear
, RSC Education Pack, 1993.
43.
Robert Wilcher, “King Lear,” in
Shakespeare in Performance
, ed. Keith Parsons and Pamela Mason (1995), p. 91.
44.
Gordon Parsons,
Morning Star
, 5 July 1982.
45.
Alexander Leggatt,
King Lear, Shakespeare in Performance
(1991),p. 55.
46.
Wilcher, “King Lear,” p. 93.
47.
Janet Dale, in RSC Education Pack, 1993.
48.
Benedict Nightingale,
The Times
, 12 July 1990.
49.
Billington,
Guardian
, 13 July 1990.
50.
Nightingale, “Some Recent Productions,” p. 231.
51.
Emily Raymond,
King Lear
, RSC Online Playguide, 2005.
52.
Nicholas de Jongh,
Evening Standard
, 21 May 1993.
53.
Michael Billington,
Guardian
, 22 May 1993.
54.
Nightingale, “Some Recent Productions,” p. 239.
55.
Paul Taylor,
Independent
, 5 July 2004.
56.
Peter J. Smith, in
Cahiers Élisabéthains
, No. 66 (2004).
57.
Billington,
Guardian
, 30 June 1982.
58.
Charles Marowitz, “Lear Log,”
Tulane Drama Review
, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Winter 1963), pp. 103–21.
59.
Redgrave,
King Lear
.
PICTURE CREDITS
Preparation of
“King Lear
in Performance” was assisted by a generous grant from the CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning) of the University of Warwick for research in the RSC archive at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded a term’s research leave that enabled Jonathan Bate to work on “The Director’s Cut.”
Picture research by Helen Robson, Jan Sewell, and Kevin Wright. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for assistance with picture research (special thanks to Helen Hargest) and reproduction fees.
Images of RSC productions are supplied by the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, Stratford-upon-Avon. This library, maintained by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, holds the most important collection of Shakespeare material in the UK, including the Royal Shakespeare Company’s official archive. It is open to the public free of charge.
For more information see
www.shakespeare.org.uk
.
1.
Robert Armin © Bardbiz Limited
2.
Mr. Macready (1838). Reproduced by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
3.
Directed by Theodore Komisarjevsky (1936). Reproduced by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
4.
Directed by John Gielgud and Anthony Quayle (1950). Angus McBean © Royal Shakespeare Company
5.
Directed by Peter Brook (1962). Angus McBean © Royal Shakespeare Company
6.
Directed by Trevor Nunn (2007). Manuel Harlan © Royal Shakespeare Company
7.
Directed by Deborah Warner (1990). © Donald Cooper/Photostage
8.
Directed by Adrian Noble (1993). © John Bunting
9.
Directed by Adrian Noble (1982). Joe Cocks © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
10.
Reconstructed Elizabethan playhouse © Charcoalblue