Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This live performance of The Public Theater's 1974 production of "King Lear" is refreshingly straight-forward and offers abundant proof that the play -- one of Shakespeare's very greatest -- cries out to be acted, not just read. By any standard, the acting (with a few surprising exceptions) is well above average; compared to more recent Shakespeare productions at The Public Theater, the acting is astonishingly fine.
James Earl Jones gives a performance of awesome power and ferocity -- perhaps the greatest of his career. The sophistication and subtlety of his reading may surprise audiences unfamiliar with his work prior to his ubiquitous telephone company commercials. For the rest of us, this superb performance of a great artist at the height of his powers is cause for celebration, even as it is cause for sorrow: for here, too, is a stinging reminder of the scarcity of suitable roles for actors of Mr. Jones' refinement, technical mastery and colossal intensity. Are there no authors besides Shakespeare worthy of this extraordinary actor?
Of course, no one but a churl would begrudge Mr. Jones the comfort and pleasure his commercial success apparently brings him -- long may he prosper! Then again, who but a churl could fail to grieve at the waste of an artistic life of such immensity and grandeur?
Click Here to see more reviews about: King Lear / Jones, New York Shakespeare Festival (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1974)
The formidable James Earl Jones reprises his critically-acclaimed King Lear in this television adaptation of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival production. Of Jones's performance, The Washington Post wrote, "Jones has the qualities of mind, body, voice and movement which enable him to make us care deeply about the spectacle of an old man brought to grief by his folly. The magnitude Jones project is not a matter of mere physical size, but of largeness of soul."
Get 10% OFF
No comments:
Post a Comment