Kenneth Branagh will direct and play the title role for 50 performances only at Wyndham’s Theatre from 21 October.
The production feels like an accomplished rhetorical exercise that doesn’t run deep, when this, of all plays, needs to rattle the soul. The litmus test of any “Lear” is whether you emerge from the theater moist-eyed, and my cheeks were dry throughout.
If you had doubts about whether the actor-director has the gravitas to take on one of the great Shakespearean roles, you’d have them confirmed here. At 62, Branagh has entered bus pass territory, yet there is still a hint of the unruly colt to the king who announces his decision to divide his domain between his daughters. For all the solidity of his verse-speaking, it’s hard to believe that this glossy-haired patriarch is really on the verge of mental and spiritual disintegration.
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Public Theater Production Off-Broadway |
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2016 | West End |
Old Vic Revival Production West End |
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Broadway Revival Broadway |
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