Talking Lear: Sam Mendes

The film and stage director talks to Mark Leipacher about his acclaimed production of King Lear, working with Simon Russell Beale and his career thus far.

Talking Lear: Stephen Boxer, Sam Troughton, Tom Brooke

Stephen Boxer (Gloucester), Sam Troughton (Edmund) and Tom Brooke (Edgar) talk to Mark Leipacher about the National Theatre's current production of King Lear directed by Sam Mendes.

Talking Lear: Adrian Scarborough, Stanley Townsend

Adrian Scarborough and Stanley Townsend talk to Fiona Mountford about Sam Mendes' 2014 production of King Lear.

Talking Lear: Kate Fleetwood, Anna Maxwell Martin, Olivia Vinall

Fiona Mountford talks to Kate Fleetwood, Anna Maxwell Martin and Olivia Vinall about playing the three daughters in Lear, being directed by Sam Mendes and performing in the Olivier theatre.

Talking Lear: Simon Russell Beale

Simon Russell Beale talks to Mark Leipacher about taking on the role of King Lear and reuniting with Sam Mendes.

King Lear: Nothing will come of nothing

"Oh, go ahead, just tell him you loved him!  It'd be so much easier.  You didn't have to mean it."

~Sam Mendes, on Cordelia vis-a-vis King Lear
Director

King Lear: Truth and perception

She can see through the lies.

~Olivia Vinall
Cordelia

King Lear: The blinding of Gloucester

It's not just about the blinding of one man.  It's about everything that's done in the name of political control.  It's about torture in general.

~Simon Russell Beale
King Lear

King Lear: The House of Gloucester

The play was a forging our relationship [i.e. with son Edgar], rather than a relationship that had fallen apart and then had to be rebuilt.

~Stephen Boxer
The Earl of Gloucester

King Lear (Act IV, scene vi)

GLOUCESTER

O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world
Shall so wear out to nought. Dost thou know me?

KING LEAR

I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny
at me? No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I'll not
love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the
penning of it.

GLOUCESTER

Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.

EDGAR

I would not take this from report; it is,
And my heart breaks at it.

KING LEAR

Read!

GLOUCESTER

What, with the case of eyes?

KING LEAR

O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your
head, nor no money in your purse? Your eyes are in
a heavy case, your purse in a light; yet you see how
this world goes.

GLOUCESTER

I see it feelingly.

KING LEAR

What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes
with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond
justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in
thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which
is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen
a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?

GLOUCESTER

Ay, sir.

KING LEAR

And the creature run from the cur? There thou
mightst behold the great image of authority: a
dog's obeyed in office.
Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!
Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back;
Thou hotly lust'st to use her in that kind
For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.
Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.
None does offend, none, I say, none; I'll able 'em:
Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
To seal the accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes;
And like a scurvy politician, seem
To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now:
Pull off my boots: harder, harder: so.

EDGAR

O, matter and impertinency mix'd! Reason in madness!

KING LEAR

If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.
I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester:
Thou must be patient; we came crying hither:
Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air,
We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee: mark.

GLOUCESTER

Alack, alack the day!

King Lear, by William Shakespeare

King Lear: A violent world

So what you get is a world built on fear and danger.

~Sam Mendes

Director

King Lear: The language of madness

I think every actor who's played him must've thought, "Is he already suffering from some type of breakdown, and is he aware of it?"  The Lear that I play, I think, is aware.

~Simon Russell Beale
King Lear 

King Lear: The storm

On the one hand, it is easy to suppose that the storm is a metaphor for the madness that King Lear undergoes.  On the other hand, it is complicated to think how mankind and nature are intimately linked to one another, mirroring each other and elucidating each other.  For instance, is the storm an act of the gods against Lear for his hubris, and does he deserve the emotional and physical suffering that the storm instigates?

King Lear: His madness

I read the script, and thought this looks suspiciously like dementia.

~Simon Russell Beale

King Lear

King Lear: The Fool

King Lear is actually a terribly lonely figure without the Fool.

~Sam Mendes

Director

King Lear (Act III, scene vi)

Note:  This performance extract is actually from Act III, scene vi.

GLOUCESTER

Here is better than the open air; take it
thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what
addition I can: I will not be long from you.

KENT

All the power of his wits have given way to his
impatience: the gods reward your kindness!

Exit GLOUCESTER

EDGAR

Frateretto calls me; and tells me
Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.
Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.

Fool

Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a
gentleman or a yeoman?

KING LEAR

A king, a king!

Fool

No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son;
for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman
before him.

KING LEAR

To have a thousand with red burning spits
Come hissing in upon 'em,--

EDGAR

The foul fiend bites my back.

Fool

He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a
horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.

KING LEAR

It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.

To EDGAR: Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;

To the Fool: Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes!

EDGAR

Look, where he stands and glares!
Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?
Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,--

Fool

Her boat hath a leak,
And she must not speak
Why she dares not come over to thee.

EDGAR

The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a
nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two
white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no
food for thee.

KENT

How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed:
Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?

KING LEAR

I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.

To EDGAR: Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;

To the Fool: And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
Bench by his side:

To KENT: you are o' the commission,
Sit you too.

EDGAR

Let us deal justly.
Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
Thy sheep be in the corn;
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
Thy sheep shall take no harm.
Pur! the cat is gray.

KING LEAR

Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my
oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the
poor king her father.

Fool

Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?

KING LEAR

She cannot deny it.

Fool

Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.

KING LEAR

And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim
What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!
Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!
False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?

EDGAR

Bless thy five wits!

KENT

O pity! Sir, where is the patience now,
That thou so oft have boasted to retain?

EDGAR

[Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much,
They'll mar my counterfeiting.

KING LEAR

The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and
Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.

EDGAR

Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!
Be thy mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons if it bite;
Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,
Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,
Tom will make them weep and wail:
For, with throwing thus my head,
Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.
Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and
fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.

KING LEAR

Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds
about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that
makes these hard hearts?

King Lear, by William Shakespeare

King Lear: The oldest daughter Goneril

Goneril really is the target of his fury.

Lear is absolutely horrible to Goneril, in a way that he doesn't speak to the other two.

King Lear: The middle daughter Regan

[Regan] uses sex to manipulate men, in a way that Goneril doesn't. She uses her femininity, and the power of sex even with her own father to get what she wants.

King Lear: The youngest daughter Cordelia

The stubbornness in him can also be the stubbornness in her.

King Lear (Act I, scene ii)

EDMUND

Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

King Lear (Act I, scene ii), by William Shakespeare