The stage-within-the-screen: Peter Brook’s film adaptation of King Lear

Abstract

Abstract In his film of King Lear (1971), Peter Brook reimagined his landmark production of the play on screen through an intricate interplay of theatrical and cinematic codes. This article revisits Brook’s adaptation, focusing on how its much-discussed debt to theatrical traditions relates to broader issues regarding the production and reception of Shakespearean films in the UK. I argue that the film’s overt affiliation to theatre sets it apart from other Anglophone adaptations of Shakespeare grounded in Hollywoodian conventions that broaden considerably their potential to reach a global audience across time and location. In establishing strong links between his film and the RSC production, Brook’s counter-cinematic approach to filmic storytelling, alongside his casting of acclaimed stage actors, asserted the authority of theatre as a privileged medium where Shakespeare is made to signify. We shall see that the various marks of site-specific theatrical traditions in the film underscore its appeal to a local – rather than global – audience, thus dismantling essentialist and universalist views of Anglophone adaptations of Shakespeare on screen.