King Lear...

[fajrdrako]

This evening I watched the Ian McKellen 2008 version of King Lear with commodorified, raynedaze, and auriaephialia.

First off, King Lear is far from my favourite Shakespeare. One of my least favourite. So grim, so many nasty people betraying their families, so little hope for anyone. But I've seen some terrific productions - my first sight of Ralph Fiennes (as Edmund) was unforgettable.

This one was good. Good enough to draw me in emotionally. A lot of the credit goes to Ian McKellen, who is endearing enough to soften the harsh and often cruel character of Lear.

1. It was a Royal Shakespeare Company production, and, typically, had some of the oddities of RSC productions that seem to have been a tradition since at least the 1970s. Not much colour in the costumes, lots of black and white, a certain type of enunciation and acting. Though I thought Goneril sounded as if she had an incongruous North London accent. (Not that I have any kind of an ear for British accents.)
   
   
2. As usual, I keep confusing Goneril and Regan, and their respective husbands, Cornwall and Albany. I've never seen a production in which I could keep them straight. I thought Goneril looked like Miss Hannigan in Doctor Who: The Next Doctor, with a huge skirt and red dress, dark hair and pail skin, and a cold manner against a dull background when everyone else was in monochrome.
   
   
3. I thought Philip Winchester was great as Edmund, though for the first half of the movie I thought he'd wandered out of Wuthering Heights (the storm and the setting reinforced that impression), and for the second half, where he was more militaristic, it was as if he had stepped out of a Sharpe movie, complete with effete, posh sneer.
   
   
4. I always love the scene where Edgar lies to his father about the cliff.
   
   
5. Sylvester McCoy made a very odd fool. Oddly dressed in a patterned Edwardian dressing gown, he consistently looked more like the Doctor than a Shakespearean Fool - though I've seen Shakespearean Fools of all types, shapes, and genders.
   
   
6. The vaguely eastern-European vaguely-19th century costuming seemed somewhat out of place to me. I kept thinking of Barrayar.
   
   
7. After the show, we were shown Ian McKellen's comments on Lear. One interesting thing he said was that he thought, throughout the course of the play, Lear lost his faith in the gods. I'd never considered that before, but it seemed right.
   
   
   

Comments

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I just got through watching it, too. What I don't understand is why the language was so unintelligible, unless it was just bad audio while recording a stage play rather than the movie versions I'm used to. I have no problems with understanding and following the language in the movie versions, but that was like listening through a closed door or something.

I did like the acting, and I did like many parts of this version. I really liked Romola Garai as Cordelia -- she was in Branagh's movie of As You Like It, and she was, alas, one of the few good things in that movie (between that and his musical of Love's Labour's Lost, Ken seems to have lost his touch with the Shakespeare movies since Hamlet, alas).

But you are right about Lear being depressing. It's about a stupid, naive old man, a bunch of people who take advantage of him, and a few poor souls who stick by him and pay for it with their lives. I've always liked Shakespeare's comedies better than his tragedies. Except for Hamlet, that is. But Hamlet is in a class by itself.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

After the show, we were shown Ian McKellen's comments on Lear.

Oh, bugger. I'd given up and turned off, but I would have liked to have seen those. Did he say "get a light Cordelia"?

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

"So grim, so many nasty people betraying their families," haha, this is why it gets quoted a bit in Eden. I've not seen a production, though, just read it.

[xinef.livejournal.com]

I've seen King Lear several times (live), with Peter Ustinov, William Hutt and Christopher Plummer in the leading roles. I am not fond of King Lear but was interesting to see these well known actors take it on. By far the best of the lot was William Hutt.

[idiotgrrl.livejournal.com]

King Lear would, indeed, go over very well on Barrayar. I'd like to see it set in Dark Ages England, when "the gods" meant something but Christianity was starting to make inroads. Not the Diana Paxson version of very early Celtic England, but, say, 7th Century? I mean, we have -

Petty kingdoms with an overking whose grip is shaky -
Lots of dynastic squabbles and infighting -
Partible inheritance -
The tradition of personal loyalty to one's lord at all costs -
Strong-minded women urging their husbands on and acting in their own right
The Gods, as I said before -

That said, once I got the setting of this production down pat, I could easily see it. Tolstoy's Russia, one of the minor fringe states.

Edmund was very well cast, and the sisters came across from Day One as the sort of female villains we've been seeing lately - powerful, power-hungry cougars in high places.

Lear

[kitgordon.livejournal.com]

I actually got to see McKellen do Lear live when the RSC toured to the Guthrie last year; it was pretty amazing. I can't pick up television in our condo, but maybe I'll view the DVD at some point. I just dramaturged a workshop production of Lear here at the University with an all-female cast; that was a lot of fun, and the young women were amazing. I actually like the play quite a bit, but it is definitely not a pleasant one.

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Lear and Henry V are my two favorite plays, actually. I regard them as thematic flipsides of the same coin. In college, I did an essay about Divine Right and kingship in both plays. God fought for Henry at Agincourt, because he stepped up and took responsibility as a leader. Lear's kingdom went to hell in a handcart, because he abdicated power before God saw fit to kill him, and yet still claimed that power. Thus, a vacuum was created, and chaos ensued.

[devohoneybee.livejournal.com]

I saw this production at UCLA Royce Hall in Los Angeles last year. My friend and I were also puzzled by the Russian costuming, but it made a slight bit of sense when we saw the other play they were touring -- a Chekhov.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yike! I just saw the review in the paper, yesterday. I am so jealous you have already seen it. And it was marvelous.