King Lear reviewed by Ben Brantley


The New York Times gives King Lear with Christopher Plummer a rave review


Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Christopher Plummer in the title role of "King Lear."

Ben Brantley of the New York Times has given King Lear, directed by Jonathan Miller and performed by Christopher Plummer, a rave review:

Throughout Jonathan Miller's engrossing production of Shakespeare's bleakest tragedy, which opened last night, Mr. Plummer bestrides the boundary between being and nothingness with a brightness sure to stun even longtime admirers of this superb actor. This is an organically complete Lear whose end is glimpsed in his first majestic appearance and whose last, broken moments pulse with fleetingly recovered strength. Bringing a whisper of infirmity to Lear at his most confident and a glow of grandeur to him at his most abject, Mr. Plummer creates a portrait for the ages, drawn in self-consuming fire.

This production was originally staged at the Stratford Ontario Festival in 2002 - and Brantley feels that it has transferred well. This is a play I know well - I saw Robert Stephens in Lear at RSC (in this production they covered the stage with paper, underneath it was painted red, so after the storm got wet, it gradually revealed more and more of the red beneath it), and I saw it once at Virginia Commonwealth University. It featured a female Lear, who was good, but an odd futuristic production concept that did not really work, I also directed it once at Sweet Briar College.

KING LEAR

By William Shakespeare; directed by Jonathan Miller; sets by Ralph Funicello; lighting by Robert Thomson; costumes by Clare Mitchell; composer, Berthold Carrière; sound by Scott Anderson; stage manager, Brian Scott; general manager, Adam Siegel; production manager, Jeff Hamlin. Presented by the Lincoln Center Theater, under the direction of André Bishop and Bernard Gersten, in association with the Stratford Festival of Canada. At the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center.

WITH: Christopher Plummer (King Lear), Domini Blythe (Goneril), Lucy Peacock (Regan), Claire Jullien (Cordelia), Ian Deakin (Duke of Albany), Stephen Russell (Duke of Cornwall), Benedict Campbell (Earl of Kent), James Blendick (Earl of Gloucester), Brent Carver (Edgar), Geraint Wyn Davies (Edmund), Barry MacGregor (Fool), Paul O'Brien (King of France), Guy Paul (Duke of Burgundy) and Brian Tree (Oswald).

Links
Internet Broadway Database
Christopher Plummer

Posted: Thu - March 11, 2004 at 08:58 AM          

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