A collective of bibliophiles talking about books. Book Fox (vulpes libris): small bibliovorous mammal of overactive imagination and uncommonly large bookshop expenses. Habitat: anywhere the rustle of pages can be heard.
In the summer of 2007, Edward Petherbridge travelled to New Zealand to play King Lear on stage, but fell ill after the first rehearsal. The role had to be recast and the world therefore still awaits his Lear . . .
In the meantime, we can offer a tiny but tantalizing glimpse of what might have been in is this multi-media presentation, recorded exclusively for our inaugural “Shakespeare Week”. (With apologies to everyone who still has a dial-up connection.)
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Oh, no! I need a friend request to see it!
Oh. I thought everyone should be able to see it. Errm … Leave it with us a minute, Christine.
I think it should be sorted very shortly. Try again in a couple of hours … I’ve sent a message asking for the video to be made “Public” …. Sorry!
Okay. We think it’ll work now.
Yrs in eternal techie numptiness,
M.
Is it okay now? Someone? Anyone?
It’s fine and quite lovely. As we’ve been reminded this week Shakespeare has so much to say about the human condition. He speaks to us about different emotions and different stages of life. It is a pleasure to listen to Edward Petherbridge, who has obviously given Lear and his family a lot of thought over the years, talk about the play in contemporary terms (family disfunction, etc) and to equate the lessons that Lear learns to those that parents (such as myself) ought to internalize a whole lot sooner than we do. And his pictures of Lear in the rain are amazing. A pity we don’t run across such great artistic accidents more often!
I didn’t have a chance to watch this yesterday, so I didn’t know there was a problem. What a marvellous video!
I’ve only read King Lear once, when I was at uni (and in that particular class I decided to write my essay on The Taming of the Shrew instead) so I’m not that familiar with it. I have the Ian McKellan version on DVD, but haven’t watched it yet. But this video makes me want to go straight back to King Lear and look at it again with his points in mind. The idea of Goneril and Regan as damaged hadn’t occurred to me, I thought they were just vile! And I loved the distinction of Lear as powerful rather than strong.
A fantastic video, really enjoyed it! I only wish he had played Lear and that I could have seen it!
You, Sir, are astonishing. Thank you.