Production and King Lear

 

Section 2: Production and issues of representation

  Productions

 You will see two live performances of King Lear this year. You will also see segments from two DVD versions. For each production you will need to make notes.  The following tables allow you to organise notes for the scenes in a production. These are also the scenes you did a close reading of earlier in this unit.

 

·         King Lear – directed by Michael Piggott for Harlos Productions, Sydney

 

·         King Lear – directed by Peter Brook

 

·         Ran – directed by Akira Kurosawa

 

.       King Lear - directed by Richard Eyre, Royal National Theatre

 

See also: http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Theater/sip/play/Lr/main.html

 

@The following grid can be completed on each key scene.

• Make notes against each of the production features in the scene.

• Consider why you think the director decided to use these production features.

• Look at your response, as a member of the audience, to those features. Did the features work? Why? why not?
   

Act ? Scene ?	Examples	Director’s intention	Your response as a Viewer
Context: social, political, economic, cultural
Visual Elements 1.         Physical context
2.         Use of colour
3.         Atmosphere
Sound Elements1.         1.        Use of voice
2.        Sound effects
Changes to characterization

 

  

@You've read the play and seen some productions. Now the question is:

·         How do you think Lear should be played?  Why? Why not?      

stressing his great age and the pathos of his situation

as a fiercely proud and impetuous old man

as heroic

with a strong emphasis to Lear’s mistreatment at his daughter’s hands

with emotional restraint

as harsh and primitive

as an old undisciplined child, consumed by fears, anger and self importance

emphasising the private terror of Lear’s descent into madness

@You need to think about how you see the principal characters:

                              Lear and Gloucester

                              Kent and Edgar

                              Goneril and Reagan

                              Edmund

                              Cordelia

                              The Fool

@You might also think about :

o        How you see them in relation to one another?

o        Whether any of them are indispensable? dispensable? Who? Why?

o        Capable of becoming a hybrid character

o        Whether King Lear can be a Queen Lear? How does that change the dynamics of the play?

 

·         How should King Lear be staged?

                  naturalistically

                              set in Britain just after the withdrawal of the Romans

                    as a series of angled steps that covered most of the stage

                              with a “ timeless and mythic” look

                              was bare and consisted of two movable white flats which were angled to the stage sides

                    pre-World War I

       @You might also think about the following possibilities:

                  Relevance to the Russian Revolution

                  Relevance to the Iraqi invasion

                  The world of high finance in New York

                  Tramps in a junk yard

                  A Druid setting emphasising natural tones

                  A setting that plays with black, white, grey tones and red