Goold Revamps Pete Postlethwaite Lear for London??? Date: 25 November 2008
Having received a barrage of negative reviews from the national press after its Liverpool premiere earlier this month, Pete Postlethwaite has admitted the criticisms of King Lear were “justified” and revealed that the production, helmed by Rupert Goold, is undergoing something of a makeover prior to its London transfer early next year.
Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Front Row programme, Postlethwaite echoed the critics’ sentiments by saying the production, which marks the first time he has played Lear, was “overwhelmed” with ideas. He said that since the opening performance, elements that were “unhelpful, distracting, not true to the story" had been “jettisoned” to aid cohesion. Sections that have been reworked include the opening sequence which originally included quotations from a Margaret Thatcher speech and was described by Christopher Hart of the Sunday Times as “irrelevant”.
But Postlethwaite was quick to praise the “bold” decision-making of director Goold, adding that since making the changes the company have been “a very happy bunch of bunnies coming on this stage every night, telling the story in a cracking way”. And there’’ll be plenty of time to make further adjustments before the London run - King Lear finishes at the Liverpool Everyman on 29 November and doesn’t transfer to the Young Vic until 29 January 2009, where it runs until 28 March.
Audiences indeed loved it - at least by the time I saw it at the end of the run. I wonder if the critics who slated it would even so have taken that into account? This was not an audience who knew the play in depth, if at all - and many around me were worried about the length of the production - over three and a half hours - but they were so held that the silence at the end was one of the longest I have heard in the theatre for ages. So something must have been right. It does take risks and not all of them come off, but nothing wrong with that ... - S Woodcock
10 Dec 08
It's a shame that the way tickets were allocated means that unless you're able to queue up for one of the day tickets, those who saw it earlier in the run won't have seen the finite version of the production. - mcgill
26 Nov 08
Having seen Lear at the first night and again this week, it is a very different production where the characters have grown in stature and the actors look much more comfortable with the play overall. The audiences are loving it
- S. Jones
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