National Theatre Live: King Lear (2018)

If you're looking for a textbook version of King Lear, it must be the version played by Ian McLean, one of the best actors in the world today. The nearly 80-year-old Sir Ian McLean is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with the roles of Gandalf and Magneto, and is the most outstanding Shakespeare actor in the world today. During his more than half-century acting career, he has played most of the major roles in King Lear, and more than once. At the time of this rehearsal, his age was already quite close to the age of the characters in the original work, which injected a deeper understanding. The Guardian praised McLean's performance as "smart, sober and exhaustive", while the Times called it "meticulous and powerful". The five-star production was pushed all the way to the West side stage after it opened at the Chichester Festival Theater last year. Director Jonathan Montby made a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's play, which is full of cruelty, violence, delicacy and compassion. King Lear, one of the two peaks of Shakespeare's play, tells an ancient version of the story of family separation. the enlightened King Lear was coaxed by hypocritical and flattering eldest and second daughters and decided to give them all his kingdom. Cordelia, the upright youngest daughter, did nothing. Unexpectedly, after the separation, King Lear was given the cold shoulder and humiliation at the home of the eldest daughter and the second daughter, and even lived in the wilderness in the storm. Lear is crazy, but he knows right and wrong better than ever. Cordelia, who became the queen of France, came to rescue her father. The villains were rewarded, but Cordelia was also killed, and King Lear died sadly beside her. The Chichester Festival Theatre, which produced this rehearsal, is Britain's iconic local theatre, famous for its high quality of performance and cooperation with local communities and young artists, and works often have the opportunity to be transferred to London.