King Lear revealed

For many critics, King Lear is the mightiest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. It is a play about age and irresponsibility, about parents and children, about the boundaries between rational and irrational behavior. Many may be studying it for A Level English Lit. with OCR and WJEC boards, or for A Level Language and Lit with AQA, or for their Cambridge Pre U exam.

If you are due to be examined on King Lear this summer, you’ll will be pleased to know that, just in time to help you, a Crossref-it.info text guide is about to be released – watch this space!

Read Lear online

To help you easily flick through the play meanwhile, you can find a searchable online version of the King Lear text. Just when you are struggling to remember in which scene the old King calls his daughters ‘unnatural hags’, Crossref-it.info’s speedy search facility will lead you to Act 2 Scene 4, where you can trace the development of Lear’s distress with his elder offspring.

Examiners keep saying that there is no substitute for knowing the text really well. Using the online version, you can quickly scan through the play a scene at a time to remind yourself of the complex plot and Shakespeare’s vivid imagery.

Catch current and forthcoming productions while you can!

Of course, the true impact of a play is only experienced when you see the relationships within it embodied in a theatre. The good news is that you don’t have to make your way to London to see Lear come to life on stage in 2015.

If you hurry, Guildford Shakespeare Company are performing until 14th February at Holy Trinity Church, Guildford, Surrey. The play’s parent/child inter-relationship will be given an added twist by the pairing of real-life father and daughter, Brian Blessed (King Lear) and Rosalind Blessed (Goneril). (Box office: 01483 304384; or www.guildford-shakespeare-company.co.uk)

With slightly more time to book, it’s worth trying to get to a new touring production. Renowned director Jonathan Miller is currently rehearsing Northern Broadsides Theatre Company in William Shakespeare’s King Lear. The production will tour to:

• The Viaduct Theatre, Halifax (27 Feb-7 Mar)
• Hull Truck Theatre (10-14 Mar)
• Theatre Royal Bath (17-21 Mar)
• Everyman Theatre Cheltenham (24-28 Mar)
• West Yorkshire Playhouse (8-18 Apr)
• Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough (21-25 Apr)
• Liverpool Playhouse (28 Apr-2 May)
• The Lowry, Salford Quays (5-9 May)
• York International Shakespeare Festival (12-16 May)
• Rose Theatre, Kingston (19-23 May)
• New Vic Theatre, Newcastle under Lyme (27 May-13 June).

Meanwhile, watch out for the new text-guide and let us know if you agree that King Lear really is the mightiest of Shakepeare’s tragedies.