Another King Lear, really?

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 2:29am

so this is what the 5th or 6th major production between the US/UK this year alone, why is this being so over produced?

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/187998-Shakespeares-Globe-Will-Bring-King-Lear-Starring-Joseph-Marcell-to-NYU-Skirball-Center

[lotiloti]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 6:19am

Because it's a bloody good story ! Seeing SRB's Lear in a couple of weeks.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 10:00am

If you don't want to see Lear again, then don't.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 10:06am

^ This.

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 5:05pm

Simon Russell Beale, John Lithgow, Joseph Marcell, Michael Pennington--all really good actors with very different styles. I think it's great that we have options to see different takes on the same play. As others said, you don't have to see all, or any.

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 7:02pm

Yes, you're all right. Different interpretations, indeed.

But I do also agree with the OP: there has been a glut of Macbeths and Lears the past few years. A break in the rep wouldn't be a bad thing.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 11:59pm

^thank you, my kingdom for a couple productions of Titus.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 9:49am

Obviously there were a lot of great minds thinking alike on this and other gluts of this sort, but part of what precipitates it is that it is a play that sells both to audiences and perhaps more importantly to actors of a certain stature.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 9:52am

Yes, yes, it's wonderful we can see actors of stature take on a classic role.

But Shakespeare wrote about three dozen plays, why are we seeing that same few- often multiple times the same season?

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 10:08am

Clearly there is a desire to see this play or wouldn't be produced so often. The market dictates what is produced in commercial theatre.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 10:09am

Quite a few of these are non-profits.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 10:17am

And if you put on Pericles, Cymbeline or Timon of Athens, you can watch tumbleweeds blow through the empty seats of your theatre.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 11:01am

reread my answer. the answer is there, but it requires that you avoid conflating actors of stature and audiences.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 11:08am

But when there are several high-profile productions all occurring in the same season, you're risking splintering the audience base. I would wager that most theatregoers are not going to go see more than one production of King Lear a season- it's a long piece and there is very much of a sentiment of "we've just seen that" in theatregoers, regardless of quality of the production - which means they will choose based on loyalty to either the producing theatre or the star.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 12:34pm

I don't disagree with your reasoning, but obviously these duplicate productions are being produced on the basis of some other reasoning, which you can either explore or ignore. It's really no different from asking why some artist who is repeatedly associated with flops continues to get work.

[bobs3]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 12:49pm

I will never forget the Mabou Mines production done at The Public (when it was under Joanna Akalatis' tutelage) and Ruth Maleczech played a female Lear and the play was set in a garbage dump landfill (Lear was the owner of the landfill, this was her kingdom). It was bizarre to say the least. I think a third of the audience walked out and the rest just stayed to see if the production could get any worse.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 9:43pm

There's also the itsy-bitsy consideration that Lear is one of the supreme works of literature, English or otherwise. We're lucky to have had the opportunities to have seen this masterpiece in our lifetimes.