Yiddish Queen Lear

Synopsis
Stage video recording of Julia Pascal’s re-working of King Lear. Set in New York in the late 1930s, a once-famous Yiddish actress gives her theatre business over to her three daughters. In the first narrative scene actor-manager Esther Laranovska auditions young theatrical hopefuls by getting them to recite from Hamlet in Yiddish. The play moves on to examine the moment when Jewish East European and American cultures mix on the eve of the Holocaust.
Language
English
Country
Great Britain
Medium
Video
Technical information
Colour / Sound
Recording date
Apr 1999
Duration
137 mins

Credits

Writer
Julia Pascal
Cast
Ruth PosnerEsther (Lear)
Natasha PollardChannele (Cordelia)
Amanda BoxerGail (Goneril)
Anna Ziman 
Anton Blake 
Tim Levine 

Additional Details

Theatre
Southwark Playhouse
Production type
Stage Recordings
Plays
Hamlet; King Lear
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
Jewish Americans; Jews; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Auditions; Gender reversal

Notes

Notes
Performance script held at the Julie Pascal Archive, Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York.
History
The play opened at the Southwark Playhouse 20 April 1999.

Archive

Name

V&A Theatre & Performance Collections: National Video Archive of Performance

Email
tmenquiries@vam.ac.uk
Web
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/nvap/ External site opens in new window
Phone
020 7942 2697
Fax
020 7471 9864
Address
Blythe House
23 Blythe Road
London
W14 0QX

How to cite this record

Shakespeare, "Yiddish Queen Lear". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av70948 (Accessed 12 Nov 2024)