Lear

[wellinghall]

We went to see "King Lear" at the Bristol Theatre Royal / Old Vic yesterday. Great performances from Timothy West as Lear, Stephanie Cole as the Fool, and David Hargreaves as Gloucester, well supported by a young cast. This is a photograph of the set for the first scene:


The theatre is being refurbished, so the bar etc were backstage. There are some pictures at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154317977623408.1073741983.658173407&type=1&l=3f6578b3d0

Comments

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

But tell about the production! How did they do the map? Were Goneril and Regan just plain wicked? Was Lear bearable? How did they play the family dynamics around Cordelia?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

The map was projected onto a screen, which Lear then tore, showing it to be of paper.

Goneril and Regan were ... yes, I think "just plain wicked" sums it up nicely. Lear showed himself to be a sad old man - seemingly harsh at first, but then this was shown to be early signs of his madness. (It may not be a coincidence that Timothy West's wife Prunella Scales suffers from Alheizmer's).

Cordelua is harder for me to say, as I have little to compare it to - I am sorry to say that I have never seen the play before.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

In fact, you can see the screen on the left of the main picture.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I really like hearing about these things - the different ways directors handle the text. Lear's absolutely grim whichever way it's played. :( and so crammed full of material! Directors must utterly quail.