King Lear
Opening Night: September 30, 2014
Closing: October 11, 2014
Theater: Skirball Center for the Performing Arts @ NYU
Weary of his royal duties, King Lear proposes to break up his kingdom and generously divide it among his three daughters. Joseph Marcell (celebrated classical actor also known for his role as Geoffrey in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) gives a commanding performance in the definitive title role. With a stellar ensemble of eight masterful actors on a simple stage creating all the characters and performing musical instruments, this remarkable production reinvigorates classic theatricality with the tempestuous poetry of Shakespeare.
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October 2, 2014
At the company’s home base on the South Bank of the Thames, the emphasis has always been on bridging the distance between audience and performers, as a way of reaching back to the more intimate rapport that was said to prevail in Elizabethan times. When Broadway hosted two productions from the company last season with the luminous Mark Rylance starring, a certain playful mood was certainly in the air. But this frolicsome tone seems a dubious tactic for King Lear, Shakespeare’s darkest and most corrosive tragedy. It’s a bit like putting one of Goya’s disturbing black paintings in a Hello Kitty frame.
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