King Lear
From King Charles III to King Lear: what theatre tells us about taking the throne
Mike Bartlett’s 2014 play anticipated a constitutional crisis, while playwrights including Shakespeare and Chekhov have shown how traumatic a transfer of power can be
Michael Billington
12, Sep, 2022 @11:35 AM
Tim Crouch: Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel review – virtual King Lear
Using a VR headset and an empty stage, Tim Crouch puts his audience at one remove from the Shakespeare play to comment on the world and theatre itself
Mark Fisher
12, Aug, 2022 @11:55 AM
King Lear review – Kathryn Hunter’s frail, fond old ruler almost unbearably affecting
Back in the role she first played in 1997, Hunter uses her extraordinary transformative powers to show us the king as a geriatric child at the head of a disintegrating nation
Mark Lawson
19, Jun, 2022 @12:06 PM
The prime minister merely echoes the empty threats of King Lear | Brief letters
Brief letters: ‘Terrors of the earth’ | Oxford Union debating skills | Half Man Half Biscuit | Expecting the Spanish Inquisition
Letters
27, Apr, 2022 @4:50 PM
Learwife by JR Thorp review – out of Shakespeare’s shadows
This impressive, opulently written debut novel begins where King Lear ends, as his invisible queen tells her story at last
Aida Edemariam
09, Dec, 2021 @7:30 AM
A happy ending for King Lear? Trauma of plague caused Shakespeare to change play’s finale
The Bard, like us, lived through a period of trauma. One expert now believes it coloured his later plays
Vanessa Thorpe
13, Dec, 2020 @8:45 AM
Ian McKellen's Hamlet, aged 81: it's madness but there's method in it
Eyebrows were raised over the casting for the young Prince of Denmark, but it could give the play new life
Susannah Clapp
28, Jun, 2020 @7:56 AM
Shakespeare in lockdown: did he write King Lear in plague quarantine?
Pestilence was rife in the Bard’s time, closing theatres and ravaging life. Did he write his bleak, desperate drama while self-isolating? We sift the evidence
Andrew Dickson
22, Mar, 2020 @2:00 PM
Eric Cantona speech: humans 'will become eternal' – unless crime or war intervene
Former star baffles audience at the Uefa Champions League draw by quoting from King Lear, before concluding: ‘I love football’
Guardian sport
30, Aug, 2019 @1:35 AM
Shakespeare’s plays possibly inspired by London neighbours
Bard thought to have lived near Liverpool Street, next to doctors, merchants and artists
Jedidajah Otte
13, Apr, 2019 @12:57 PM
Jack Lear review – Shakespeare, shanties and a raging Barrie Rutter
Dementia drama and Jacobean bloodbath sit uneasily alongside each other in a reworking of King Lear during the fishing industry’s dying days
Mark Fisher
28, Jan, 2019 @9:46 AM
Jack Lear review – Shakespeare gets a gripping sea change
Barrie Rutter revives Ben Benison’s reworking of King Lear set in a 21st-century fishing community with action-packed success
Clare Brennan
27, Jan, 2019 @8:00 AM
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