Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent, Florence Pugh, Jim Carter, Andrew Scott, John Macmillan, Tobias Menzies, Anthony Calf, Karl Johnson, Christopher Eccleston, John Standing, Simon Manyonda, Chukwudi Iwuji, Samuel Valentine, Arinze Kene, Sharon Watts, Kaye Brown, Raphael Desprez, Peter Forbes, Sam Redford, Liam McKenna, Paul Tinto, Eric Kofi-Abrefa.
The use of the contemporary setting for Shakespeare’s plays has been a boon in the last thirty years, especially when it comes to putting the words of the greatest exponent of the English language on television, or on film. Away from the almost sterile passions of the once rigidly adhered to effects on stage, the sense of purpose that the modern setting has provided means that the structure of the play becomes immense, towering over our fashions and almost crippling sense of misunderstanding towards the past.
It is in adaptions such as Ian McKellen’s cinematic dystopian beauty of Richard III, Joss Whedon’s revision of setting to upmarket coastal America in Much Ado About Nothing or even Baz Luhrmann’s sumptuous Romeo and Juliet that the modern setting works so well; it is a tradition carried on in the latest B.B.C version of King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins, Emily Watson, Emma Thompson and Florence Pugh, a tradition which is expansive and superbly handled.
The issue with King Lear for many is that the text which many read perhaps for the first time at school, can feel unappealing, misanthropic, the almost defiant challenge to the love we are supposed to feel for our families; it is only later in life, that as we begin our gradual climb through adulthood, through the flourish of being a parent and the inevitable distrust of age, that we understand the complexity of hoping that our loved ones see us in the light they did when they were but children themselves. By demanding that love we lay ourselves open to ridicule at best, to deceit, lies and almost certain heartbreak at worst.
To capture this and make sense of the relationship between Lear and his three daughters, is to make the most of the scenes in which they appear, the sheer revolt as they discuss the need for the amount of soldiers at his disposal is incredible and one of flowing greed and vitriol, it is an exchange that rivals some of the greatest in all of Shakespeare’s works but one that has not had the added persuasion and feminine anger attached to it that Ms. Watson and Ms. Thompson carry off in unbelievable style.
With wonderful support from Jim Broadbent, Andrew Scott, Jim Carter and John Macmillan, this particular version of King Lear should be seen as arguably one of the finest ever brought to the screen, one that rivals in its bleakness and divine disintegration of that of Pete Postlethwaite and the company at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre a decade ago. Majestic in every sense.
Ian D. Hall