King Lear NT Live Urania Budapest
Jan 24th 2020
Only very brief comments on this. A very fine performance by all. McKellen more than met the challenges and the slightly plangent quality of his voice was marvelously suited to the defeated and mad old man that he became – although perhaps slightly lacking the imperial edge for the opening scenes. And of course the plangency easily became somewhat whiny when dealing in earlier scenes with and Regan and Goneril – which was good.
This was a performance of equals an I felt that McKellen was not inappropriately dominating which can sometimes happen with these great tragic roles
The largely modern dress production on a plain stage did its job. I do not feel that there were any major re-interpretations of the roles, just very well-spoken justice being done to the play. Would be a good one to introduce young people to for this reason.
See it if you can – but was intrigued to find out that McKellen has done Lear before; must check and see where and how old he was.
https://youtu.be/j-0ZETc2-rk