Summer 2015 marks the 23rd season of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. With King Lear, we fulfill our mission to make Shakespeare’s works accessible to a diverse audience through FREE professional theater and educational programs.
The Festival last staged King Lear in 2000, and the play has since made numerous appearances on stages across the world. Below, take a visual journey of King Lear through the years, and join us in Southmoreland Park June 16 – July 5 for our free production of one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. Visit www.kcshakes.org for more information and production updates.
Gary Neal Johnson as Lear in Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s 2000 production in Southmoreland Park, directed by Bruce Levitt.
Last summer, John Lithgow appeared in the title role for New York’s Shakespeare in the Park. It was the first Lear appearance at the festival since James Earl Jones’ legendary performance in 1973.
James Earl Jones played Lear alongside Paul Sorvino in his 1973 Shakespeare in the Park performance. The show was later filmed and released on video in 1974.
Critics hailed Ian McKellen’s 2007 performance at Royal Shakespeare Company, which was directed by Trevor Nunn. The performance was the last and most highly-anticipated production of the year-long Complete Works Festival.
Laurence Olivier first played King Lear in a West End production at the age of 39.
36 years later, Olivier returned to the role for the 1983 TV movie. Olivier was awarded the 1984 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for his performance.
Nonso Anozie was the youngest actor to play the role, performing the part at age 23. Declan Donnellan directed the production for RSC in 2002.
Simon Russell Beale played across the pond last summer at London’s National Theatre. Directed by Sam Mendes, Russell Beale brought a “magnetic and orthodox Lear” to the stage.
Veteran actor Christopher Plummer played Lear at Lincoln Center in 2004 under the direction of Jonathan Miller. “I have never seen such an accessible Lear,” a New York Times critic praised in a 2002 review of the production before it came to New York City.
“This production brings me closer to Lear than I have ever been; from now on, I not only know him but can place him in his harsh and unforgiving world.” Peter Brook directed Paul Scofield in a “revolutionary” production of King Lear in 1962. Scofield has since been lauded as the “king of kings,” but actors continue to revisit and refine Lear to make the role their own fifty years later. Photo from the Ronald Grant Archive.
–Alyson Germinder, HASF Dramaturg
