365 Days of Shakespeare

That's right – the Bard in a year.

364. My top five Shakespeare plays: number 2

with 4 comments

Wow. This is the penultimate entry of 365 Days of Shakespeare! Hard to believe! Let’s not waste any time getting down to it!

NUMBER 2: King Lear

Phew. This is one of the big ones. King Lear is one of those plays that intimidates anyone trying to put on a production, whether actors or directors or technicians. How to do the storm? Is Cordelia really such a naive girl, or is she trying to be strategic too – only her way backfires? Don’t forget about the Fool! So much in this play is monstrous in its scale that it can be hard to find people willing to do it. But when you do, it can often be a thrilling experience. I always think of the production from the third season of Slings and Arrows…that’s pretty much how I think it should be done. It is a difficult, heartbreaking show, but one that can be one of those life-changing plays when it’s done right.

Written by Caroline Mincks

September 30, 2010 at 11:19 AM

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4 Responses

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  1. One I am slightly less familiar with, though a good’un to be sure.

    Pray, what is ‘Slings and Arrows’? Can look up online, of course, but be nice to hear your take on it.

    Folk have just been noticing there are a lot of Lears springing up (mentioned in Comments over at Acting Shakespeare blog, ‘Some things of weight that task our thoughts’) and wondering why – perhaps you have some ideas on that?

    Now – no. 1: is it Hamlet or the Scottish Play, I wonder … (or will I be totally gobsmacked?)

    discoverfineacting

    January 5, 2011 at 6:18 PM

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  2. “Slings and Arrows” is an EXCELLENT Canadian TV program that I highly recommend to everyone, theatrically-minded or no. It is part farce, part slice of life, part very real look into some of the zanier and more infuriating aspects of staging a production, as well as the challenges of running a theatre company that must accept itself as a business as well as an art. The show is beautifully done and there’s not a bad line of dialogue in the entire series.

    Hmm…not sure about why Lear is cropping up more, but I will say that here in Richmond there is a production coming up this summer. Maybe someday I’ll do a thesis on patterns in popularity of certain Shakespearean productions…

    bard365

    January 16, 2011 at 10:11 AM

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