A great work of interpretation.
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This marvellous book should be on the reading list of every student of this play. The first two chapters especially are studded with question marks because, in preparing himself to play the role of King Lear at the Almeida Theatre in 2002, Oliver Ford Davies explored a large range of alternative interpretations of the lines and characters in Shakespeare's play: which seemed most convincing to him? At each question the reader might pause to think out an answer for him or herself before reading on to discover how Davies resolved it for himself. Individual words and phrases, some of which might easily be overlooked, are carefully examined for what light they shed on the play; so our own understanding of it is greatly enriched. In the course of presenting these questions we also get a history of what other great commentators have written (just as, in the third chapter, we learn how other great actors have played the part.) Then there are four chapters about this particular production, three of them a rehearsal diary, in which further questions arise and are hammered out; and it is thrilling to see the production take shape.
Davies writes very well. He is modest about himself and generous about all with whom he worked, from the Director (Jonathan Kent) to whose own view of the play he devotes a separate chapter, to his fellow actors, to the Stage and Lighting Directors, and to the tailor who made the costumes. Before Lear, Davies usually played rather benign parts, and that this benignity is part of his character can be seen in the fact that there is none of the tension or bitchiness that one sometimes finds in accounts of other productions.
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