The documentary about the performance process of staging Kraliçe Lear (2019) shows how an all-female, rural, travelling theatre company deals with gender inequalities. Their backstories give Shakespeare new significance for the lives of the performers and their sceptical audiences. As an all-female and rural travelling theatre, the Arslanköy Theatre Company’s free performances aim to dissuade rural people from their general disbelief at the necessity of dramatic entertainment. Read More
This production of King Lear was performed in the CJ Towol Theater at the Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea in the Fall of 2021 and was directed by Lee Hyon-u, English professor at Soon Chun Hyang University. Lee Soon-jae starred as King Lear, and actress Lee Yeon Hee played both Cordelia and the Fool. Read More
The productions of King Lear in Turkey over the years have included many famous actors playing the title role: Cüneyt Gökçer in 1958 and 1980, Çetin Tekindor in 2002, and Haluk Bilginer in 2018. King Lear is a play often read but rarely performed for many reasons one of which is the need for a stellar cast, even in the small roles. Cüneyt Gökçer, who also served as the General Art Director of the Turkish State Theatres (Devlet Tiyatroları) between 1958 and 1983, takes a bold step himself, and takes on Lear, one of the world’s most tragic figures. Read More
Yiğit Serdemir’s Kral “Soyatrım” Lear (“My Fool” King Lear) is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Jointly produced by Pangar and Altıdan Sonra theatre companies in 2014, it tells the story of King Lear from the point-of-view of Lear’s fool who meets other fools who become both audiences and performers of this storytelling. Tomris İncer, Berkay Ateş, Demet Evgar, Okan Yalabık, Sezin Akbaşoğulları, Umut Kurt and Yiğit Sertdemir perform multiple roles in this dream-like and grotesque adaptation that foregrounds human follies through the caricature-like depiction of the several fools in the play. Live music accompanies the bells of the motley-clad fools who try to make sense of the obvious follies committed by the titular character of Shakespeare’s play. The use of puppets between puppet and puppeteer along with the juxtaposition of the fool and the king show how social demarcations are actually void and non-existent. Read More
Building upon Jacques’ theatrum mundi trope, 7 Şekspir Müzikali visualises the seven ages of man from cradle to grave. Being a collection of several excerpts from different translators, including those made by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) alum Haluk Bilginer (1954-…) himself, the musical is built upon Bilginer’s almost one person performance where the rest of the cast as female fools accompany his dancing and singing through a well-choreographed pace. Performing all seven stages of man singlehandedly by referring to social and theatrical issues alike, Bilginer displays his great acting and life-long love relationship with Shakespeare in this almost two-hour musical. Read More
Full video is available courtesy of Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). Please note that Televisión Española (TVE) was renamed RTVE from 1980.
https://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/teatro-en-el-archivo-de-rtve/teatro-siempre-rey-lear/3189919/
Adapter or translator: Antonio Gala
Aired on May 12, 1967.
TV program (or series): “Teatro de siempre”
Starring Manuel Dicente (Lear), Asunción Sancho, María José Alfonso, Alicia Hermida, Jaime Blanch, Luis Peña.
Production is curated by Jesús Tronch, professor titular (Senior Lecturer) at the University of Valencia, where he teaches English literature and creative translation.
Juca de Oliveira plays six roles in this adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear which was translated and adapted by Geraldo Carneiro, directed by Elias Andreato, and premiered in 2014 in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. Read More
In a land ravaged by strife and violence, actors and poets search for hope and inspiration in the words of the world’s greatest playwright. In this short documentary, Yemeni actors and actresses perform some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines, and a Yemeni poet recites a qasidah inspired by a Shakespearean sonnet. Why Shakespeare? Why Yemen, and why now? Watch and find out. Read More
In “African Tales by Shakespeare,” director Krzysztof Warlikowski and actors from Nowy Teatr return to Shakespeare in a production which places Othello, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, alongside with John Maxwell Coetzee’s Summertime and Wajdi Mouawad’s monologues (which were especially written for the play). In this thought-provoking five-hour theatre show, Shakespeare’s protagonists – Lear, Othello and Shylock – are depicted as outcasts who share a single fate and are thus played by the same actor. Read More
O Bobo do Rei (The King’s Fool) transposes the tragic elements from King Lear into Commedia dell’Arte Stock characters. King Lear carries characteristics of the old cantankerous Pantalone, but also displays the lyricism of of an aged man who has to overcome his biggest tribulation yet to reach wisdom. Goneril and Reagan become female Brighellas, scheming and vindictive. Cordelia is performed in the style of the romantic Inamoratti. The court jester is Arlequino, intelligent and witty enough to pass as fool, the fool is the voice of wisdom and truth. The story is told from his perspective. Read More
This production of King Lear by the Belarus Free Theatre was first staged at the Globe Theatre in London as part of the 2012 Globe to Globe Festival (April 23 to June 9), and brought back to the Globe in 2013 (September 23 to 28). A theatre in exile from a totalitarian state, the Belarus Free Theatre drew on the history of reading Shakespeare in the Soviet Union, as well as on the current situation in Belarus, to comment on the cruelty, violence, and individual vulnerability generated under the conditions of dictatorship. Read More
POOR POOR LEAR is a one-woman show by Finnish writer-performer Nina Sallinen. She portrays an elderly actress doing a farewell performance, a solo production of King Lear, in her small apartment. Read More
This 2009 Argentinian production of King Lear stars Alfredo Alcón as the title character and is directed by Rubén Szuchmacher. Read More
The Tale of Lear, directed by Tadashi Suzuki whose experimental and provocative Trojan Women received critical acclaim at the 1986 Chicago International Theatre Festival Read More
A contemporary film adaptation of King Lear, set in modern-day London, centred on the life of three generations of immigrants of a Hindu family from Bengal. Read More
Performed in Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese, Mandarin and Korean with English subtitles. Fifteen years after 1997, Ong Keng Sen revisits his Lear to create a new performance, distilled and visionary, entering one man’s mind, a past king and his memories: Lear Dreaming. Read More
King LeoR (1996) is a documentary about the making of King Lear, directed by Leo de Berardinis (1939-2008) who was an innovative director and actor of the Italian theatre. Read More
King Lear is a 2008 television film based on the William Shakespeare play of the same name, directed by Trevor Nunn. It was broadcast on More4 in the UK on Christmas Day, and shown on PBS’ Great Performances in the United States in March 2009. The production was filmed mainly at Pinewood Studios in England. Read More
Iruthiattam, a 2001 Tamil-language adaptation of King Lear. The production was directed by R. Raju from a script by Indira Parthasarthy. Read More
Samrat Lear, a March 1997 Hindi-language adaptation of King Lear by the National School of Drama in New Delhi. Directed by John R. Brown from a script by Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Read More
Raja Lear, a 1993 Marathi-language adaptation of King Lear. Directed by Sharad Bhuthiadia from a translation by Vinda Karandikar. A faithful translation, this production was performed in a manner ‘faithful’ to the tradition of realist staging of Shakespeare. This has been the most common staging practice for Shakespeare in India. Read More
In post-independence India an Anglo-Indian teacher, Violet Stoneham (Jennifer Kendal), lives a quiet and uneventful life at 36 Chowringhee Lane in Calcutta, now Kolkata. Her brother Eddie (Geoffrey Kendal, Jennifer’s father in real life) is senile and ailing in a nursing home. After the marriage of her niece Rosemary (Soni Razdan), she is alone except for her cat, Sir Toby. Her only joy in life is teaching Shakespeare, despite the lack of interest from her students. Read More
Lear and the Thirty-seven-fold Path of a Bodhisattva, performed by Performance Workshop, premiered at the Kwai Ching Theatre, Hong Kong, March 2000, as part of the Experimental Shakespeare festival. It was also performed in Taipei, 2001. Read More
Kathakali King Lear premiered in 1989 and toured internationally through 1999. At the annual Globe to Globe Festival in 1999, the production was staged at the Globe Theatre in London and performed by the Annette Leday/Keli Company. Dancer, choreographer, and director Annette Leday played Cordelia. David McRuvie adapted Shakespeare’s King Lear text while K. Marumakan Raja translated it into Malayalam. Read More
King Qi’s Dream is an adaptation of King Lear performed in the Beijing Opera style and directed by Ou Yangming. In an ancient Kingdom there lives an old king. One day announce a big decision to divide his kingdom into three parts for his three daughters to govern. His two elder daughters agree with their father and so they obtained their land. But his youngest daughter gets no land for she opposes his idea. Years later the two elder daughters drives their father out, making him wander in the wild. His loyal subjects, Kun Fu and Xue Ying (his youngest daughter), saves his life. He wants to take back his power and kingdom but it is too late for one of his officials has taken over the power to rule the kingdom. Read More
In 2001, Wu Hsing-kuo, the artistic director of the Contemporary Legend Theatre (CLT, Taipei), returned to the stage after disbanding his company two years earlier. His solo performance of King Lear reflects his own personal struggle to rediscover his own identity as an actor and to define the mission of the CLT in the 21st century. Read More
Ran (乱, transl. “chaos” or “turmoil”) is a 1985 epic war drama film directed, edited and co-written by Akira Kurosawa. The plot derives from William Shakespeare’s King Lear and includes segments based on legends of the daimyō Mōri Motonari. The film stars Tatsuya Nakadai as Hidetora Ichimonji, an aging Sengoku-period warlord who decides to abdicate as ruler in favor of his three sons. Read More
A creative interpretation of Shakespeare’s King Lear through percussion music, drumming, and dance. The production is also known as “Drumming with Lear.” The performance emphasized physical expressions of strong emotions. Read More
What happened to the three daughters of King Lear before they made their entrances in Shakespeare’s classic? Yellow Earth Theatre presents this seminal work exploring the formative years in three young women’s lives. Read More
Lear hands over control of his global business empire to his daughters. In his Shanghai penthouse, he asks them to justify their inheritance. The older sisters flatter their father in elegant Chinese but English educated Cordelia, no longer fluent in her father’s tongue, says “Nothing” and the loss of face sends Lear into a spiral of fury and madness. Read More
Ong Keng Sen’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s King Lear brings artists from Japan, Thailand, China and Indonesia to work together on this intercultural and collaborative piece that toured Asia & Europe. Read More
In 928 A.D. a power struggle emerges in the palace of China’s emperor (Chow Yun-Fat). A cruel man, he is secretly having his wife (Gong Li) poisoned with a substance that will eventually drive her insane. Meanwhile the empress is having an affair with Prince Wan (Ye Liu), her husband’s son from a previous marriage. But the prince secretly wishes to run away with Chan (Li Man), the daughter of the imperial doctor. Read More
