King Lear, written by William Shakespeare, adapted by Richard Eyre

King Lear, written by William Shakespeare, adapted by Richard Eyre

Surely, everything has been said about King Lear and there is not much left for new adapters, except perhaps to try casting only – or mostly – women, including or especially in the leading role, as the celebrated Andrei Serban has done in Bucharest – Romania, in case you wonder.

This 2018 latest take on one of the greatest artistic works of humanity - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews - has a phenomenal cast.

Nevertheless, there are moments when one could dare and find, if not fault in the performance of a legend like Anthony Hopkins, some degree of exhaustion, which could of course be the perspective he has on the king who is indeed at the end of his strength, after he committed acts of extravagance and folly.

The premise is evidently known in the remotest corners of the world – an outrageous exaggeration, one could walk on a street nearby, in an European capital and find that one in fifty may have heard the name Lear, attributing it to some singer or football player anyway.

If we ask Trump supporters, who buy all that Russian agents place on their false news sites, admire a clown and only read the headlines on Fox News – with problems understanding them often –they would also answer that Lear must be some pill that combats hair loss.

Nonetheless, hearing Regan aka Emily Watson and Goneril aka Emma Thompson flaunt their love of the precious, majestic father, one could have mixed feelings, since we have seen King Lear a few times before, we may feel the urge to insert some comedy into it, on top of the lines of the Fool, jester of the court.

For in our modern age, even if we get that Regan and Cordelia are liars – and this becomes ever more obvious and abhorrent as we advance into the play – some of those who attend development-couching classes cannot help but think that these women do a good job with their flattery.

After all, How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the bestselling books worldwide for good reason, you do not insinuate yourself with someone – we might even say especially a king of the past, with near absolute powers – by using the Cordelia technique.

Clearly, sincerity is preferable to deceit, cunning adulation and the purposes of the two vicious daughters are on full display very soon –but a note of blasphemy, lese majeste again, taking pot shots at the Absolute God of Theater- well, not so much really, for no sane person could do that, but just fooling around with details of characters, from a postmodern angle, since we are talking of a new version – would criticize Cordelia:

This great girl is right in showing modesty, restraint, avoiding excessive shows of feeling when it is obvious she loves her father, real emotions do not need exotique displays, it can be overwhelming and in bad taste to proclaim, act, shout, cry out, but she could have added more sparkle, a few glorious words…”Words Create Worlds” as Tal Ben-Shahar says in his lectures.

It is also true that one can think of Thomas Mann, who has a character that is appalled at the frequency with which men and women proclaim their feelings, which are so flabbergasting, cosmic and encompassing the universe that there are no words to express these fantastic emotions…

The personage disagrees: words like love, friendship do not exist in real life; we can find them in their pure from only in art, literature…

Hence, Cordelia is right to avoid excess…”Less is more” – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Besides, as we move along with the aged King Lear, we find that first one, then the other declaratively loving daughter finds his presence overbearing, after having received considerable shares of the kingdom and its fortune, they now think in capitalist terms of profit, expenses, cutting costs and retinue…

Here again, the profane under signed was thinking that the entourage of the retired monarch was perhaps somewhat numerous and especially disturbing, with their loud shouts, rude manners, impolite and rough behavior.

Now, given the considerable sum of a few hundred billion dollars – putting this into the currency, price per parity in the economy of today – indisputably that would make do for the expense, clamor of not just a few hundred escorts, but many thousand and all of them using fireworks every other week day…Insha’Allah.

Jim Broadbent is excellent as always, in the crucial role of the Earl of Gloucester, even if the scene wherein he loses his eyesight and the…eyeballs is more than gruesome and abominable, it inserts horror into the performance.

This might be one of the elements that are new in this recent adaptation, in the realistic manner with which the episode is treated, the other modern aspects of King Lear 2018 would be the last Range Rover models, which carry the protagonists around instead of the original horses or carriages.

There are some uniformed men and women who have the latest model of British Army outfits – one presumes – and there are scenes that take place in front of a supermarket, where a confused, already debilitated Lear meets with the now blind, tortured Gloucester…

It is hard though to come to a definite conclusion: on the one hand the play is a masterpiece, as we all know, on the other, perhaps they should have called Sir Anthony Hopkins a few years ago for this project…