British Universities Film & Video Council

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King Lear

Synopsis
Live audio recording of Peter Brook’s production of King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company with Paul Scofield in the title role.
Language
English
Country
Great Britain
Medium
Audio
Recording date
2 Dec 1964

Credits

Director
Peter Brook
Writer
William Shakespeare
Music
Guy Woolfenden
Cast
Paul ScofieldLear
Diana RiggCordelia
John LaurieEarl of Gloucester
Alec McCowenFool
Brian MurrayEdgar, later disguised as Tom o’Bedlam
Barry MacGregorKing of France
Clifford RoseDuke of Albany
Ian RichardsonEdmund
Irene WorthGoneril
John ChurchCaptain
John HarwoodCuran
Ken WynneOld Man
Michael BurrellDoctor
Michael MurrayDuke of Burgundy
Michael WilliamsOswald
Pauline JamesonRegan
Peter BlytheHerald
Tom FlemingEarl of Kent
Tony ChurchDuke of Cornwall

Additional Details

Theatre
Aldwych Theatre, London
Theatre company
Royal Shakespeare Company
Production type
Other
Plays
King Lear
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

Notes
An extract from the production from Act IV vi ‘But who comes here...You get it by running’ is available to listen to on site at the British Library Sound Archive.
Reviews
Review by Kenneth Tynan reprinted in Tynan, Kenneth. A View of the English Stage (St Albans: Paladin, 1976), pp. 343-8. Tynan writes ‘I now see a clue to Mr Brook’s cruel unsparing egalitarianism.: his production is amoral because it is set in an amoral universe. For him the play is a might philosophic farce in which the leading figures enact their roles on a gradually denuded stage that resembles, at the end, a desert graveyard or unpeopled planet.'

Archive

Name

British Library Sound Archive

Email
listening@bl.uk
Web
http://www.bl.uk/nsa External site opens in new window
Phone
020 7412 7676
Fax
020 7412 7441
Address
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB

Record Stats

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