On the 2018 King Lear, dir. Jonathan Munby and ft. Ian McKellen

How many versions of King Lear have I seen? 

If we exclude Ran (a loose adaptation) and the Kozintsev film (in Russian), 5: the Michael Buffong production from 2016 (ft. Don Warrington), the Jonathan Miller one from 1982 for the BBC (ft. Michael Hordern), the Michael Elliott one from 1982 (ft. Laurence Olivier), the 1971 Peter Brook film (ft. Paul Scofield), and now this one. 

Ian McKellen is excellent as Lear—if Don Warrington’s Lear is a monumental character striving against cosmic forces, Ian McKellen’s Lear, like Michael Hordern’s, is a frail and feeble man in a domestic drama, betrayed by his ungrateful daughters—his performance emphasises the theme of old age and mortality in Shakespeare’s play. One of the finest scenes in the production is between the mad Lear and the blind Gloucester. Look at Lear—an old man, a frail man—as he says: 

“Ay, every inch a king!

When I do stare, see how the subject quakes....”

It is one of the greatest scenes in King Lear and also one of the hardest to play, because of the mix of tragedy and comedy. 

“LEAR […] We came crying hither;

Thou know’st, the first time that we smell the air

We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee. 

GLOUCESTER Alack, alack the day!

LEAR When we are born, we cry that we are come

To this great stage of fools…”  

The scene of Lear holding Cordelia’s body also brought tears to my eyes—“Why should a dog, a horse,”—Ian McKellen’s voice breaks—“a rat have life, and thou no breath at all?”.

It is a great performance. 

And yet, the production as a whole doesn’t quite work for me. I’m not sure why. Perhaps King Lear looks wrong in modern dress. Perhaps the problem is simply the rest of the cast—in the Michael Buffong production, I love Miltos Yerolemou as the Fool, Rakie Ayola as Goneril, Debbie Korley as Regan, Thomas Coombes as Oswald; in the Jonathan Miller version, I love Penelope Wilton as Regan, Brenda Blethyn as Cordelia, Anton Lesser as Edgar; in the Michael Elliott production, I love Robert Lindsay as Edmund and Diana Rigg as Regan (even if the whole thing fails because Laurence Olivier’s performance as Lear lacks power)—in this production, none of the rest of the cast delivers a strong, memorable performance, none leaves a lasting impression. Danny Webb as Gloucester, Claire Price as Goneril, Kirsty Bushell as Regan, Anita-Joy Uwajeh as Cordelia, Luke Thompson as Edgar, James Corrigan as Edmund, Lloyd Hutchinson as the Fool, and so on—they’re all pale, all weak, all forgettable. The only one who does something that could be interesting is Kirsty Bushell—more than other Regans I have seen, she explicitly portrays the character as sexually aroused by violence—it’s perhaps unfair for her that I have seen Diana Rigg and Penelope Wilton in the role, but at least she takes a different approach, at least she makes one think about Regan’s sadism. 

The rest are just bland. Not awful as such, just lacklustre and uninspired. 

Should you watch it? Perhaps, for Ian McKellen, but that’s all. 

Instead, watch Lyndsey Turner’s Coriolanus from 2024, with David Oyelowo in the titular role. Now that is a magnificent production, one that makes you feel exhilarated, one that makes you think great Shakespeare productions still exist, one that makes you realise that, despite ideology and all the other nonsense, Shakespeare will prevail.