Written and directed by Richard Eyre, based on the Shakespeare play.
Amazon Prime, Playground Entertainment and a collaboration between Amazon Studios and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Jim Broadbent … Earl of Gloucester
Jim Carter … Earl of Kent
Tobias Menzies … Duke of Cornwall
Emily Watson … Regan
John Macmillan … Edmund
Florence Pugh … Cordelia
Emma Thompson … Goneril
Anthony Calf … Duke of Albany
Anthony Hopkins … Lear
Simon Manyonda … Duke of Burgundy
Chukwudi Iwuji … King of France
Karl Johnson … Fool
Samuel Valentine … Lear’s Gentleman
Andrew Scott … Edgar
Christopher Eccleston… Oswald
Anthony Hopkins once remarked that once you were old enough to play Lear, you were too old to play Lear. We’re so untender when we are young.
Now a sprightly eighty, Hopkins doesn’t share Lear’s determination to ‘Unburthen’d crawl toward death,’ and instead presents us with a fiery and passionate depiction of a mad king, foolish and dangerous in his dotage.
“He won’t remind you of any contemporary politicians. No, not at all. Trust me on this. Enjoy the play.” – Edmund the Bastard, who you can always trust.
No matter how brilliant, Hopkins could not carry this vast story alone, and he has a marvelous cast including Florence Pugh, luminous as Cordelia, Karl Johnson as Shakespeare’s best fool, and John Macmillan as a casually vicious Edmund. Strong performances abound.
Richard Eyre has done a fine job of distilling a four hour play into a two hour video performance, making the Shakespeare work easier to follow, and concentrating the power and flow between the main characters. The dialog is the original, of course. Lots of coxcombs and whoresons. But then, there usually are.
While the locale is 21st century London, home to Sherlock and Doctor Who [Cough! Oswald! Cough!] it’s filmed in location at Dover Castle and the Bloody Tower, a deft blending of eras. This England is a militarized place, contemplating war with France, and further riven by Lear’s foolishness in parceling out his authority to those who are inappropriate and incapable of assuming such responsibilities. No resemblance to any contemporary politicians, mind you. Edmund says so, and his word is his bond.
It’s said that the character Lear is the toughest role in theatre (I think Lucky from Godot is, but that’s just me), and nobody can truly bring full credit to the demands of the character. Perhaps that’s true, but Hopkins, a stiletto of fire and ice, comes as close as is humanly possible.
Now on Amazon Prime