Lex-Ham Community Theater Shakespeare reading series: King Lear

Lex-Ham Community Theater
Shakespeare Reading Series
King Lear

King Lear deals with many questions relevant to contemporary audiences:

How do you:

divide up your estate wisely among all your children?
deal with an aging parent?
get rid of guests who have overstayed their welcome?
keep dry on a dark and stormy night?
punish someone who disobeyed an order?

This story of King Lear and his three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, and Glouchester and his two sons, Edgar and Edmund, remains powerful to readers and audiences. Lear's giving up his power and subsequent fall into madness makes him one of Shakespeare's most perplexing and fascinating characters.

Some good references for the play are:

The Story Text of the play SparkNotes summary of the play	Background information Shakespeare timeline - 1599: The Great Globe
Sources A Declaration of Egregious Popish Imposters by Samuel Harsnett	Film Versions King Lear (1984) with Laurence Olivier King Lear (1974) with James Earl Jones King Lear (1953) with Orson Welles

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Last updated: 1/15/2006