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King Lear Resources
Video 1.
Which of the three productions best captures the opening of the play where Gloucester speaks to Kent about Edmund? How is Edmund depicted in each production? What emotions does he exhibit?
Video 2.
Which of the three productions do you think best capture the moment when Goneril arrives and takes Regan’s hand? Describe Regan’s reaction to her sister’s arrival in each production. Does her demeanour and behaviour change upon her sister’s arrival?
Video 3.
How does each production present Cornwall and Regan during the interrogation and torture of Gloucester? Which of the two seems the most enraged and violent?
Video 4.
Which of the three productions do you think best captures the moment when Cordelia and Lear are reunited? How is Cordelia portrayed in each production? Does she seem nervous about meeting her father after everything that has happened?
Video 5.
Which of the three productions do you think best capture’s Regan’s obsession with Edmund at this moment in the play? How do each of the actors playing Regan convey this desperate obsession?
Video 6.
Watch Video 6 which features two versions of Lear’s confrontation with
Goneril in Act 1 Scene 4, the first featuring Laurence Olivier, the second
featuring Anthony Sher:
1. The issue of Lear’s hundred knights is an important one in this scene. In which production, in your opinion, do the knights most come across as an uproarious and disruptive presence in Goneril’s home?
2. Which performance, in your opinion, best conveyed Lear’s disbelief and anger?
3. In which performance, in your opinion, did Lear seem more like someone whose sanity might be under threat?
4. In which performance did Goneril seem more symptahetic and relatable?
5. Which of these productions would you most like to see in its entirety?
Video 7.
Watch Video 7 which features extracts from Act 3 Scene 2 starring first,
Jonathan Pryce and then and Paul Scofield:
1. Which actor makes Lear seem most vulnerable and human?
2. Which performance, in your opinion, best conveys that Lear is someone on the brink of complete insanity?
3. Comment on how both performers use their hands. Which actor, in your opinion, does this to greatest effect?
4. What does Jonathan Pryce’s performance convey about Lear’s attitude toward himself, toward human life in general and toward the Fool, who remains with him amid the storm?
5. Paul Scofield’s performance in this scene has been described as a ‘masterpiece of understatement and contained rage’. Write a paragraph in response to this statement.
Video 8.
Watch Video 8, which features two very different performances of an extract
from Act 4 Scene 6, the first featuring Jim Broadbent and Andrew Scott, the
second featuring David Troughton and Oliver Johnstone:
1. Which version, in your opinion, best conveys Edgar’s concern for his father’s well-being?
2. Which version, in your opinion, best conveys Gloucester’s determination to end his own life?
3. The actor playing Edgar, in this scene, must in a sense take on three different roles’. Write a paragraph in response to this statement
4. Does Andrew Scott, in the first version, or Oliver Johnstone, in the second, best rise to this challenge in your opinion?
5. The David Troughton version, though filmed in a rehearsal studio, is clearer in its presentation of the trick that Edgar plays on Gloucester’. Write a paragraph in response to this statement.
Video 9.
Watch Video 4, which features two different interpretations of Cordelia’s
death in Act 5 Scene 3, the first featuring Michael Horden, the second
featuring Laurence Olivier:
1. Comment on how both actors deliver the famous phrase: ‘Howl, howl, howl’. Would you agree that they each use this phrase to convey a different emotional state?
2. In which version did Lear seem most relatable in his grief?
3. Which version, in your opinion, best conveys Lear’s inability to comprehend or come to terms with Cordelia’s passing?
4. Which of these productions would you recommend to a modern audience? Give a reason for your answer.
5. Laurence Olivier declared that an actor’s body is his or her instrument. Comment on how he uses movement and physical gesture in this performance of this harrowing scene.