SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED
KING LEAR WITH CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 @ 10:00PM
King Lear is universally acknowledged as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragic roles. Plummer has played the role under the direction of Sir Jonathan Miller (who, we discover, has directed it six times).
Lear was, in fact, a real English king, who lived 800 years before Christ. Shakespeare’s premise of Lear dividing his kingdom among his daughters and, in the process, disinheriting his favorite is, for the most part, supposedly true. It is included in the Chronicles of English History, which Shakespeare often used as source material. The historic story has a happy ending, but Shakespeare gave his theatrical interpretation a dreadful dénouement that has been shocking audiences for 400 years.
