King Lear – The Shakespearean Tale
Written in the early 1600s, King Lear is ranked by many as Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. The story revolves around a man who is driven to the point of madness when his estate gets disposed off between three of his daughters, which leads to unexpected consequences. The play takes the inspiration from the pre-Roman Celtic king mythology of the Leir of Britain legend. Over the centuries, the play has been widely adapted for motion pictures as well as theatre, and some of the most famous actors have taken up the role of Lear.
The original King Lear script by the name of “The True Chronicles of the History of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters” was published in the year 1608. A more refined theatrical version was published later by the name of “The Tragedy of King Lear”. Mostly, the second version is taken up for theatrical productions. There have been several other versions with happy endings for the sake of the audiences who dislike the dark side. However, the original Shakespeare script is still considered as irreplaceable. About King Lear, George Bernard Shaw said “No one will ever be able to write a better tragedy than Shakespeare’s King Lear”.
Chichester Festival Theatre & King Lear
This brand new take on the classic of King Lear by the Olivier Award winning production company, Chichester Festival Theatre originally premiered in October of 2013 at the Chichestra’s Minerva Hall. Its New York engagement is going to be staged at BAM Harvey Theatre. Chichestra Festival Theatre, located in Sussex, England opened in the early 1960s. It was designed by Hidalgo Moya and Philip Powell and was founded by Leslie Evershed-Martine. The theatre’s current artistic director is Jonathan Church, who took up the seat in 2006. Its regular season runs between April and September and includes contemporary as well as classic material. It also runs two auditoriums, Minerva Theatre with 283 seating capacity and Festival Theatre with 1206.
The King Lear production by Chichester has now been taken to one of the most prominent performing arts venue of the New York City, The Brooklyn Academy of Music. At its current location, the venue started performances in 1908, and has since then been host to some of the finest productions. The venue consists of four auditoriums, Howard Gilman Opera House, Harvey Theatre, Fishman Space and Lepercq Space.
Frank Langella as the Lead Role
The Italian-American film and stage actor, Frank Langella is going to take up the stage in the lead role. According to Langella, he would want to be “that animal living in the wild that no one can stop watching”. Langella never ceases to surprise the audiences with his live performances, and as he took up the stage as King Lear, the reviews started pouring in, referring to him as the one who “stole the show” and that he was a “ferocious king”.
The character of Lear is the one that not many can do justice to, with its roller coaster of emotions and twists and turns. The play starts off with his mighty, heavy shouldered personality, summoning his daughters and asking them which one loves him the most. As gradually the ungrateful daughters cast him out of his own estate, his strong character gradually descends into insanity. With his Oscar nomination and three Tony Awards, Langella is one of the few actors who could have brought all these emotions together, bottled them up and then let them free on stage, in a period of less than three hours.