Performing King Lear:
Gielgud to Russell Beale

Bloomsbury Publishing
www.bloomsbury.com

Based on extensive interviews with a wide range of actors and directors involved with productions of Shakespeare’s great tragedy over the last 50 years. The 20 Lears interviewed include Derek Jacobi, Brian Cox, Oliver Ford Davies, Kathryn Hunter, Michael Pennington, Tim Pigott-Smith, Christopher Plummer, Simon Russell Beale, Donald Sinden and Timothy West. Among the 25 directors who discuss their productions are Nicholas Hytner, Jude Kelly, Jonathan Miller, David Hare, Rupert Goold, Michael Grandage, Adrian Noble, Max Stafford-Clark and Deborah Warner.

‘An illuminating survey of modern approaches to the play.’ – Simon Callow, Guardian

‘A fantastic history of the production of King Lear through the second half of the twentieth century and into the current era.’ –  British Theatre Guide