King Lear

King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It depicts the gradual descent into madness of the title character, after he disposes of his kingdom giving bequests to two of his three daughters based on their flattery of him, bringing tragic consequences for all. Derived from the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king, the play has been widely adapted for the stage and motion pictures, with the title role coveted by many of the world's most accomplished actors.

Originally drafted in 1605 or 1606, with its first known performance on St. Stephen's Day in 1606, the first attribution to Shakespeare was a 1608 publication in a quarto of uncertain provenance; it may be an early draft or simply reflect the first performance text. The Tragedy of King Lear, a more theatrical revision, was included in the 1623 First Folio. Modern editors usually conflate the two, though some insist that each version has its own individual integrity that should be preserved.

CBC Presents the Stratford Festival

CBC Presents the Stratford Festival is a Canadian film and television series. Produced by the Stratford Festival in conjunction with CBC Television, the series aims to film a Stratford production of every William Shakespeare play by 2025. In addition to airing on CBC Television, the films will also be distributed theatrically both in and outside of Canada.

The project received a $3 million grant from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario in July 2015.

Films

King Lear

The first film in the series, King Lear, starred Colm Feore in the title role. The cast also included Scott Wentworth as Gloucester, Maev Beaty as Goneril, Sara Farb as Cordelia and Stephen Ouimette as The Fool. The production was directed by Antoni Cimolino.

Feore garnered a Canadian Screen Award nomination as best actor in a television film or miniseries at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016.

King John

The production of King John stars Tom McCamus as King John, Graham Abbey as King Philip and Seana McKenna as Lady Constance, and was directed by Tim Carroll.

King Lear (1971 UK film)

King Lear is a 1971 British film adaptation of the Shakespeare play directed by Peter Brook and starring Paul Scofield.

Cast

Review

Brook's film starkly divided the critics: Pauline Kael said "I didn't just dislike this production, I hated it!" and suggested the alternative title "Night of the Living Dead". Yet Robert Hatch in The Nation thought it as "excellent a filming of the play as one can expect" and Vincent Canby in The New York Times called it "an exalting Lear, full of exquisite terror". The film drew heavily on the ideas of Jan Kott, in particular his observation that King Lear was the precursor of absurdist theatre: in particular, the film has parallels with Beckett's Endgame. Critics who dislike the film particularly draw attention to its bleak nature from its opening: complaining that the world of the play does not deteriorate with Lear's suffering, but commences dark, colourless and wintry, leaving (in Douglas Brode's words) "Lear, the land, and us with nowhere to go". Cruelty pervades the film, which does not distinguish between the violence of ostensibly good and evil characters, presenting both savagely.Paul Scofield, as Lear, eschews sentimentality: this demanding old man with a coterie of unruly knights provokes audience sympathy for the daughters in the early scenes, and his presentation explicitly rejects the tradition (as Daniel Rosenthal describes it) of playing Lear as "poor old white-haired patriarch".