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 Shakespeare's most powerful play is not for sissies. December 1, 2008
"King Lear" is where Shakespeare takes off the gloves. He brings us right to the edge of the abyss, then kicks us over that edge. This is the most devastating by far of the Shakespeare tragedies -- a play which leaves the reader shattered as the curtain falls.
I find it hard to explain where the visceral power of this play comes from. The plot is fairly typically Shakespeare, perhaps a little more complicated than usual, mixing elements taken from legend and from the historical record. At the outset, Lear is a narcissistic, bullying despot. His two older daughters, Regan and Goneril, are a couple of bad seed cougars, both of whom lust after Edmund, an equally amoral hyena. Their goody-two-shoes sister Cordelia behaves with such one-note pointless stubbornness, it almost seems like she's not playing with a full deck. Over in the Gloucester household, Edmund (the [...] hyena) is plotting against both his brother Edgar and his father. Lear's court is filled with lickspittle sycophants. Only two people have the guts to speak truth to power, and one of them wears the costume of a Fool. There's a nasty storm brewing on the heath.
Fasten your seatbelts - it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Characters in "King Lear" pay dearly for their weaknesses. Gloucester is blinded in order that he might see, but is denied any lasting happiness; after reconciling with Edgar, he dies. Lear will be driven insane before he finally learns to empathize with the poor and the meek. We watch him return from the brink of madness only to discover that's not enough. Before the curtain falls, Shakespeare gives us what is arguably the most brutal scene in his entire work.
Enter Lear with Cordelia (dead) in his arms -
Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stone!
Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so
That heavens vault should crack. She's gone forever.
Even if, like me, you find Cordelia a saccharine, two-dimensional character, this scene is shattering. Two pages later, after learning that his fool has hanged himself, Lear dies, broken-hearted. Edgar, Kent and Albany - literally the only characters still standing - are left to bury the dead and move on, as best they can.
Why do I find this the most affecting of Shakespeare's plays? (I've seen seven different stage productions, and two on TV, and it only gets more powerful upon repeated exposure.) I can't really pin it down - it's a combination of various elements. The characters are idiosyncratic, fully realised, and their behavior is highly relatable, so the play is convincing at the level of the individual protagonists. But the fable-like nature of the opening scene also confers a kind of universal quality to its message, and the themes explored within the play - abuse of power, relationships within families, responsibilities of parents and children, the breakdown of the natural order and its consequences, the human capacity for enormous cruelty - are no less relevant today than in Shakespeare's time. The skillfully constructed parallel plotting of the Lear and Gloucester arcs adds to the power of the story, the breakdown in natural human behavior is further accentuated by the raw fury of the elements during the storm scenes, where Nature echoes Lear's fury.
Ultimately, there's no getting away from the uncompromising bleakness of the play's message. In Gloucester's words - "as flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport". The nihilism of "King Lear" has always disturbed audiences, and it was common during the 18th and 19th centuries to stage an altered version, in which Cordelia was allowed to live, implying a more upbeat view of human nature. But, given what the events of the last century demonstrate about mankind's vicious capacity for self-destruction, one has to think that Shakespeare got it right first time. As usual.
 "Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude..." October 18, 2008
Ok - it's Shakespeare: points awarded. But I found myself loving the word play immensely. I was scratching notes in the columns - started my own word count when I found patterns... and then (as this was read for school) went head-first into the analytical essay to be written. Oddly - the instructor now has us working on a research paper which asks, "Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare?"
And a NOTE: I always wait to read any prologues or introductions AFTER I've read a text. I don't want the "authoritative voice" in the intro influencing my take on the book. But I do read them AFTER. This intro by Russell Fraser has to be the most inane blather I've found yet. It directly cops lines out of the play. And Fraser just makes himself giddy by musically rearranging words and paragraphs to no particular point - it is the sound of ones insides turning themselves out. As Goneril put it - "Good sir, to th' purpose."
 THE BBC RADIO GIELGUD AUDIOBOOK IS NOT ABRIDGED BUT FIRST FOLIO ONLY LIKE THE NAXOS October 3, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The only thing which mars this otherwise excellent Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing Renaissance Theatre Company King Lear with Sir John Gielgud (in around 1993), Dame Judith (formerly Judi) Dench, Bob Hoskins, Kenneth Brannagh, DEREK JACOBI, etc. is that following the academic fashion of that moment, it is First Folio only.
It is NOT abridged as indicated on the amazon product page. It is First Folio only. Otherwise it is overwhelming and excellent and demanding of repeated listenings.
For this reason alone the best recording we have available is the Caedmon recording King Lear in the Quarto or conflated version with the earlier Paul Scofield. Notice this is not the later Naxos Scofield recording King Lear (Naxos AudioBooks), which is most lamentably like this Gielgud, First Folio only.
The producers of these late recordings by Scofield and Gielgud wasted their final talent and experience doing a then currently academically correct First Folio-only recording. In the 36 page booklet which accompanies this Gielgud recording, the long experienced Fool, Michael Williams mentions politely that his best lines are cut. THe first brotherly banter between Edmund and Edgar (with the greatest joke in Shakespeare: "Since when are you a sectary astronomical?" Edgar's only joke) is lost, severely marring the play, as well as the enacting of a trial for the sisters in the straw hut: "I mistook you for a joint stool!" The Fool's best line: cut!
Basically the brochure enclosed reports no more than the fact this is First Folio only, and pages of bios of the actors and director with reflections on their performance. Cornwall at the time of this recording was presenting the part of Lear and wonders at Gielgud saying HIS lines. Also in the brochure are some overwrought black and white photos of earnest looking actors, and a few refreshing comments by Bob Hoskins and the Fool. Derek Jacobi has no comment.
I got two copies of this recording when I discovered my first purchase had no brochure. This head-shot brochure is not necessary for appreciation of the recording, but now I happily have a copy for the home and for the truck, without danger of the precautioned and unwanted FBI interference for illegal copying. May God bless amazon.com!
What a cast! Derek Jacobi (he of I, Claudius, of the saintly medical Brother Cadfael: Monk's Hook, The Leper of St. Giles, The Sanctuary Sparrow, One Corpse Too Many and of the mobster Duke in Mr. Alex Cox's Revengers Tragedy) presents an interesting if brief King of France, for once with a French accent which nevertheless occasionally slips into a Bela Lugosi imitation.
Bob Hoskins, best known here only for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, presents an interestingly husky Oswald, normally played as a weak courtier, here with a fresh take altogether, very effectively. It is worth hearing him, if only for his native cockney, but moreso for his excellent presentation of the otherwise despicable Oswald.
Dame Judith Dench is strong of course as Goneril, and strives to flesh out her evil role, as she describes in the brochure. Dench may be remembered from Macbeth / McKellen, Dench (Thames Shakespeare Collection) and Shakespeare in Love (Miramax Collector's Series), William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition) by Kenneth Branagh, etc., etc., etc.
Kenneth Branagh is well known for his numerous films of Shakespeare, as well as Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN (1994) - WIDESCREEN VERSION! - Rare Original DVD release! - Branagh, De Niro and Woody Allen's Celebrity in which he plays Mr. Allen.
Sir John Gielgud, the magnificent, the greatest, is unfortunately, tragically, perhaps only known here for 10 as Dudley Moore's butler. He may also be seen in William Shakespear's Julius Caesar The Shaw Collection (Pygmalion / The Millionairess / Arms and the Man / The Devil's Disciple / Mrs. Warren's Profession / Heartbreak House), etc. Please read his Gielgud: An Actor and His Time: A Memoir.
In the Scofield recordings we hear the usual weary Paul Scofield playing King Lear.
Here we hear Lear, Lear alone, LEar entirely, as Gielgud IS Lear, in all his fullness.
If only the script enjoyed all of ITS fullness, with the First Quarto, and not just the First Folio version which had been censored for the royal censors of its day, excluding therefore the Fool's jokes about a monopoly on foolishness, as King James corruptly passed out monopolies to his favorites. If only the producers had taken Sir John for all he had done for sixty years upon the stage, and turned him loose, and not straitjacketed by First Folio-ness.
Sir Alec Guiness's BBC radio recording of King Lear may be adequate for those familiar with this great play for our day September 6, 2008
If you have already carefully read the play, and seen various presentations, this ancient BBC radio recording may prove an adequate and refreshing version. There are jarring interludes of Stravinsky-inspired music which may now seem anachronistic or otherwise out of place, rather than tragically atmospheric, but you may find as well redeeming qualities within this recording.
For one we do not find the monotone reedy Guiness voice familiar from his films, but a broad spectrumed and robust rendition of the mighty (and tragic) character of Lear. I find nevertheless the voicings of the Fool unfortunately most often nearly indistinguishable from the young gentlemen, and the voicings of the royal women barely distinguishable one from the other, even Cordelia. Although this may seem a prerequisite for any radio presentation in which only aural cues are possible, anyone reading along, for instance in the venerable and traditional and reliable King Lear (Arden Shakespeare) edition, or intimately familiar with this ancient fable may be able to distinguish well who speaks when. Otherwise it can grow incomprehensibly, dismayingly, even discouragingly confusing.
Thus you may find here an adequate aural presentation of this play. You may also wish to hear the great Paul Scofield as King Lear (Naxos AudioBooks). Audio recordings by Gielgud, etc. are also available, but this serves as a good place to start and not too greatly eviscerated, even if our eyes are plucked out and we must hear only, nosing our way to Dover. Certainly an excellent tragedy to revisit as we find a mad old man approaching the throne and a woman in the waiting.
Review of the Signet edition of Shakespeare's "King Lear" April 10, 2008
This paperback is a handy edition of Shakespeare's great play, useful for students on all levels. The critical essays in the back are helpful, though one or two more recent ones could have been included.
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