The Measure of a King

Abstract

King Lear Presented by Royal Shakespeare Company at Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, England, March 24-June 21, 2007; and at UCLA's Royce Hall, Beverly Hills, California, October 19-28, 2007. Directed by Trevor Nunn. Set by Christopher Oram. Lighting by Nell Austin. Sound by Fergus O'Hare. Music by Steve Edis. Fights by Malcolm Ransom With Ian McKellen (King Lear), Frances Barber (Goneril), Monica Dolan (Regan), Romola Garai (Cordelia), Sebastian McCoy (the Fool), William Gaunt (Gloucester), Philip Winchester (Edmund), Ben Meyjes (Edgar), Jonathan Hyde (Kent), Guy Williams (Cornwall), Julian Harries (Albany), and others. In November, 2007 Trevor Nunn's of King Lear for Royal Shakespeare Company made its final stop at New London Theatre in London's West End after an international tour that took it from Stratford-upon-Avon, where it ran for twelve weeks in spring of 2007, to Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and United States. The RSC clearly counted upon recent Hollywood celebrity of actor cast in title role, Sir Ian McKellen, to ensure tour's financial success, and box-office returns were certainly helped by McKellen's decision (reached spontaneously, it appeared, at one of pre-press night performances at Stratford) to let Lear's trousers fall to ground when he is out in storm-blasted heath in act three. There was some cynicism amongst bloggers in UK about stripping, as it was viewed as an attempt on part of RSC to compete with theatrical spectacles in West End, where, only two weeks before McKellen first stripped, Daniel Radcliffe, famous as lead in Harry Potter films, had made his stage debut in a revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus starkers. Other bloggers, however, were ecstatic. Gandalfis HUNG, wrote one (www.bodyjewelleryshop.com, 4 May 2007). The nudity became, as Jeremy McCarter put it in New York Magazine, the talk of three continents (17 September 2007), and by time reached final stop on international tour, UCLA's Royce Hall, patrons were paying upwards of $2,000 on eBay for seats on stage that placed them within feet of McKellen. The decision to strip was, by all evidence, McKellen's. McKellen dropped his trousers for first time, in performance, on Saturday, 24 March 2007, some ten days before scheduled press night of 3 April. The nudity, unscheduled and unadvertised, resulted in a spate of complaints for which McKellen's agent (unnamed in press accounts) was appointed to respond. She claimed that nudity had not been advertised to audience members by RSC because the director [was] still making artistic decisions about production (www.starpulse.com, 26 March 2007). But with his choice to strip on 24 March, McKellen had forced his director's hand. The choice earned additional press coverage on first stop of international tour, Singapore, where McKellen was not allowed to remove his clothes on stage. In conversations with international media there and media at next stop, in Wellington, New Zealand, McKellen complained about Singaporean prudery and its laws on homosexuality. The stripping, it seemed, had its uses over and beyond what it signified in terms of theatrical performance. Bloggers were at liberty to create story about for greater part of initial run at Stratford-upon-Avon, for, week after McKellen first went nude, Nunn called a halt on official opening of production, delaying press night on basis that Frances Barber, cast in role of Goneril, had been in a bicycle accident. UK theatre critics were bemused. They could not understand why they could not review with Barber's understudy, Melanie Jessop, in role. Five weeks into delay, with no official opening of yet in sight, Adrian Hamilton noted in Independent (10 May 2007) that resentment was building among critical corps. …