And they all died unhappily every after

[jwg]

OK, so tonight we watched the PBS King Lear. And that's my plot summary.

Ian McKellan as Lear was perfect. I didn't recognize any of the other names in the cast.

My favorite characters in Lear are the evil nasty sisters: Goneril and Regan; and especially Goneril - fortunately they don't get killed until close to the end because I would have missed their presence. To be honest I find it hard to track the big picture of the "plot" but all the interchanges are very fascinating.

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Lear is my favorite of all Shakespeare.

I think it might be mine, too, but I wouldn't want to see it every week; it's emotionally rather exhausting.

[trulygrateful.livejournal.com]

Ooooh... I bet he was good! The only version of Lear I have seen (on DVD) is with Ian Holm.

Apparently men named Ian tend to play him best... just a hypothesis.

:D

[rsc.livejournal.com]

The last one I remember seeing (IMDb says it was in 1983) was a TV production with Laurence Olivier, which was pretty amazing.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

McKellen was indeed pretty amazing. The rest of the cast was excellent, too, although I've never heard of any of them. Something about William Gaunt (Gloucester)'s manner of speech seemed familiar, but it's not because I've seen the actor before (I don't recognize anything else he's been in); I think he reminded me of someone I know, but I can't think who.

I'm not going to attempt to explain, in the space of an LJ comment, what I think the play is "about".