Beyond the Absurd: Beckettian Tragicomedy Recast in Adrian Noble’s King Lear

Abstract

ABSTRACT The notion that King Lear can be interpreted through Samuel Beckett’s theatre has now become a critical truism. Peter Brook’s production of the play for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in the early sixties stands as a prime example of Becket’s impact on post-Second Wold War interpretations of King Lear. Focusing on Adrian Noble’s 1982 production of the play, this article re-evaluates the theatrical implications of appropriating Beckett to contemporise Shakespeare. In the same way that the affinities with Waiting for Godot re-signified King Lear’s compelling mixture of tragedy and comedy through the lens of the absurd, key features of Godot’s intrinsic tragicomic texture were drastically reconfigured in the production. Verbal, visual, thematic and performative elements emblematic of Godot’s absurdism gained a new resonance when assimilated into the tragic framework of Shakespeare’s King Lear and explored alongside other sources whose nature is entirely distinct from that of Beckett’s tragicomic play.