Performing King Lear: Gielgud to Russell Beale

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Description

King Lear is arguably the most complex and demanding play in the whole of Shakespeare. Once thought impossible to stage, today it is performed with increasing frequency, both in Britain and America. It has been staged more often in the last fifty years than in the previous 350 years of its performance history, its bleak message clearly chiming in with the growing harshness, cruelty and violence of the modern world. Performing King Lear offers a very different and practical perspective from most studies of the play, being centred firmly on the reality of creation and performance. The book is based on Jonathan Croall's unique interviews with twenty of the most distinguished actors to have undertaken this daunting role during the last forty years, including Donald Sinden, Tim Pigott-Smith, Timothy West, Julian Glover, Oliver Ford Davies, Derek Jacobi, Christopher Plummer, Michael Pennington, Brian Cox and Simon Russell Beale. He has also talked to two dozen leading directors who have staged the play in London, Stratford and elsewhere. Among them are Nicholas Hytner, David Hare, Kenneth Branagh, Adrian Noble, Deborah Warner, Jonathan Miller and Dominic Dromgoole. Each reveals in precise and absorbing detail how they have dealt with the formidable challenge of interpreting and staging Shakespeare's great tragedy.

Reviews

[An] illuminating survey of modern approaches to the play in performance ... [providing] succinct accounts of nearly 50 performances over the last half-century. * The Guardian *
There are about 40 living actors whove tackled the role. Read this book, all ye students, and find out as much as you can about how its been done in the recent past. * The Stage *
A superb survey by Jonathan Croall of modern Lears (from Gielgud onwards). * The Telegraph *
[Performing King Lear] contains detailed critical and personal accounts of nearly 60 productions, some successful, some not ... Croall draws on published memoirs and frequently rueful interviews conducted with actors and directors for this project, to give the reader some sense of what the Lear experience is like from within. Chapters devoted to the exertions of Gielgud, Charles Laughton and an ill-fated production starring Nigel Hawthorne make for compelling reading. * The Sydney Morning Herald *
[E]xemplary ... King Lear is for me, and for many Shakespeareans, the Mount Everest of the Shakespearean canon, and Jonathan Croall's excellently helpful and insightful book enables us to enjoy a broad perspective from the top of the summit. * Around the Globe *
[Croall] has staked a convincing claim to being Britain's leading theatrical commentator and biographer ... [and i]n this latest book, he makes a valuable addition to theatre history ... So much in this collection, on matters large and small, is stimulating to read that it seems invidious to single out any passages ... Croall should be encouraged urged to work his way through the other great roles in the Shakespearean canon. * Inside Story *
A fascinating book to anyone interested in theatre history or in the art of interpretation * Tim Pigott-Smith (King Lear, 2011) *
Im enjoying dipping into this very readable and insightful book, and very much appreciated the overview of our production * Paul Copley (King Lear, 2012) *
By playing King Lear you join a conversation with colleagues alive and dead, male and female, and of surprisingly varied ages. Jonathan Croalls vividly researched book celebrates both our diversity and our common ground. * Michael Pennington (King Lear, 2014) *
I enjoyed reading about the various interpretations, including my own efforts fascinating, and a lot to be learned. * Timothy West (King Lear, 1971, 1992 and 2002) *
Truly glorious. What a wonderful achievement. * Deborah Warner (director King Lear, 1985 and 1990) *
A genuinely fascinating read. The plurality of approaches is breathtaking * Tim Crouch (director, King Lear, 2012) *
A valuable resource in reconstructing the ways and means by which the play has been made to mean on the stage, and the fables of retrospection that the play has produced. * Shakespeare Quarterly *
This book will be of great interest to a wide range of people students and academics interested in interpretations of this complex play, actors, directors and designers (the book is particularly strong on describing the many and various ways in which the play has been staged from a visual point of view), and of course anyone who loves the play itself. * Shiny New Books *

Author Bio

Jonathan Croall is a distinguished biographer and theatre historian. He is the author of twenty books, notably the acclaimed biographies John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star (Methuen Drama) and Sybil Thorndike: A Star of Life.