King Lear is arguably the most complex and demanding play in the whole of Shakespeare. Once thought impossible to stage, today it is performed with increasing frequency, both in Britain and America. It has been staged more often in the last fifty years than in the previous 350 years of its performance history, its bleak message clearly chiming in with the growing harshness, cruelty and violence of the modern world. Performing King Lear offers a very different and practical perspective from most studies of the play, being centred firmly on the reality of creation and performance. The book is based on Jonathan Croall's unique interviews with twenty of the most distinguished actors to have undertaken this daunting role during the last forty years, including Donald Sinden, Tim Pigott-Smith, Timothy West, Julian Glover, Oliver Ford Davies, Derek Jacobi, Christopher Plummer, Michael Pennington, Brian Cox and Simon Russell Beale. He has also talked to two dozen leading directors who have staged the play in London, Stratford and elsewhere. Among them are Nicholas Hytner, David Hare, Kenneth Branagh, Adrian Noble, Deborah Warner, Jonathan Miller and Dominic Dromgoole. Each reveals in precise and absorbing detail how they have dealt with the formidable challenge of interpreting and staging Shakespeare's great tragedy.

Introduction 1 A Stage History2 The First of the Moderns: John Gielgud, Randle Ayrton, Donald Wolfit, Laurence Olivier 3 At the Old Vic: William Devlin, John Gielgud4 A Stratford Decade: John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Charles Laughton, Paul Scofield5 For the Royal Shakespeare Company: Eric Porter, Donald Sinden, Michael Gambon6 Around the Regions: Michael Hordern, Kathryn Hunter, Warren Mitchell, Pete Postlethwaite, Tim Pigott-Smith7 At the Old Vic 2: Anthony Quayle, Eric Porter, Alan Howard 8 In the Round: Paul Shelley, Clive Swift, John Shrapnel9 For the Royal Shakespeare Company 2: John Wood, Robert Stephens, Nigel Hawthorne 10 At the Globe: Julian Glover, David Calder, Joseph Marcell 11 On the Road: Timothy West, Anthony Quayle, Richard Briers 12 In Wales and Scotland: Nicol Williamson, David Hayman 13 Young Audiences, Young Players: Tony Church, Richard Haddon Haines, Timothy West, Nonso Anozie, Paul Copley14 For the Royal Shakespeare Company 3: Corin Redgrave, Ian McKellen, Greg Hicks 15 In Smaller Spaces: Robert Demeger, Tom Wilkinson, Oliver Cotton, Oliver Ford Davies, Derek Jacobi, Jonathan Pryce 16 Transatlantic Sessions: Peter Ustinov, Christopher Plummer, Frank Langella, Michael Pennington 17 At the National: Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox, Ian Holm, Simon Russell BealeSourcesFurther ReadingAcknowledgementsIndex