King Real and the Hoodlums

Synopsis

A musical grotesquerie based on the legend of King Lear. King Real lives in a nuclear submobile in which outrageous and horrific scenes of black comedy build up. A power struggle between the King and his daughters escalates until holocaust is triggered. The film was shot among the docklands of Barrow-in-Furness and involved over 200 unemployed local people.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Film; Video

Technical information

Colour / Sound

Year of release

1983

Duration

54 mins

Availability

Out of Distribution

Credits

Director

John Fox; Paul Haywood

Writer

Adrian Mitchell

Additional Details

Production type

Other

Historical period

Future

Plays

King Lear

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Untrained actors

Notes

Notes

Concord Media distributed the film for several years but no longer have a copy (1/2016).

Reviews

Kershaw, B. ‘King Real’s King Lear:Radical Shakespeare for the Nuclear Age’ in Critical Survey 3 (1991), pp. 249-59.

Production Company

Name

Welfare State International