King Lear

Synopsis: A video recording, using a single, fixed camera, of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1982 production of King Lear. Directed by Adrian Noble with Michael Gambon as Lear and Antony Sher as the Fool.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Recording date: 20 Jan 1983
Duration: 193 mins

General: Many critics and reviewers drew attention to the intense relationship in this production between Gambon’s Lear and Sher’s fool. Antony Sher’s Fool became the centrepoint, a circus clown in an interpretation with strong overtones of Samuel Beckett.
History: The production opened at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 28 June 1982 and transferred to the Barbican. The cast names reflect the Barbican production,
Stills: Stills from, and design notes on, the production are available on the Arts and Humanities Performing Arts Data Service (AHDS) at http://ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/collections/designing-shakespeare.htm
Reviews: Sher, Antony ‘The Fool in Lear’ in Jackson, Russell (ed.) Players of Shakespeare 2, pp 151-65. Sher discusses his conception and playing of the role of the Fool in Adrian Noble’s 1982 production.

Name: Royal Shakespeare Company
Web: https://www.rsc.org.uk External site opens in new window
Address: Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Waterside
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
CV37 6BB

Michael Gambon	Lear
Alice Krige	Cordelia
David Waller	Earl of Gloucester
Antony Sher	Fool
Jonathan Hyde	Edgar, later disguised as Tom o’Bedlam
Alexandra Brook	Servant/Peasant
Brian Parr	Servant/Soldier
Chris Hunter	Oswald
Clare Byam Shaw	Servant/Peasant
Clive Wood	Edmund
David Bradley	Duke of Albany
David Glover	Gentleman
Dennis Clinton	Old Man
Floyd Bevan	Servant/Peasant
Jenny Agutter	Regan
John Bowe	King of France
Ken Bones	Duke of Burgundy
Malcolm Storry	Earl of Kent
Michael Fitzgerald	Herald
Nigel Harrison	Messenger/Knight
Penelope Beaumont	Servant/Peasant
Pete Postlethwaite	Duke of Cornwall
Ray Llewellyn	Curan
Sara Kestelman	Goneril
Tom Mannion	Captain/Soldier
William Haden	Servant/Knight

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