King Lear

Synopsis: Shortened version of the play adapted for television. Transmitted live in the Omnibus slot, the production was filmed on a circular set with two cameras that travelled around the perimeter. Reviews note innovative camerawork, awkward blocking and over-crowded scenes resulting in a stangely static production, ill-suited to the small screen, which sacrificed key lines of the text to showy visuals. The Gloucester sub-plot was cut. Staged by Peter Brook.
Series: Omnibus (Us Series)
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Television
Year of release: 2010
Transmission details: 18 Oct 1953 at 19:15 (Channel: CBS)
Duration: 90 mins

Director

Andrew McCullough

Producer

Cinematographer

Writer

Music

Contributor

Cast

Orson Welles	Lear
Natasha Parry	Cordelia
Fredric Worlock	Earl of Gloucester
Alan Badel	Fool
Micheál MacLiammóir	Edgar, later disguised as Tom o’Bedlam
Arnold Moss	Duke of Albany
Beatrice Straight	Goneril
Bramwell Fletcher	Earl of Kent
David J Stewart	Oswald
Lloyd Bochner	Gentleman
Margaret Phillips	Regan
Scott Forbes	Duke of Burgundy
Wesley Addy	King of France

Notes: Included in ORSON WELLES COLLECTION (1946) and sold on DVD under that title.
Released as a standalone DVD in January 2010. Extras include an extract from a the Omnibus episode 11/10/1953 in which Alistair Cooke talks to Brook and composer Virgil Thomson, a 16-page booklet which features Brook’s recollections of the production and notes by Welles’ biographer Simon Callow.
General: Welles’ first television appearance and the first broadcast on American television to be uninterrupted by sponsors. The play was introduced by Alistair Cooke as ‘the noblest item in English dramatic literature’ and Shakespeare presented as a civilising agent in the modern world ‘at least to those of us who’ve been lucky enough to survive the barbarities of the twentieth century’.
Reviews: For an assessment of the production and a summary of contemporary critical reaction see Michael Anderegg, Orson Welles: Shakespeare and Popular Culture (New York, Columbia University Press, 1999), pp29-34. Alice Griffin ‘Shakespeare Through the Camera’s Eye’ Shakespeare Quarterly, 6 (1955), pp63-66

This record has been viewed 1587 times.

British Universities Film & Video Council