Favorite Shakespeare Performance 2

There was a King Lear, some years back, and that one stuck with me. It’s not like I don’t know how it ends — its title is The Tragedy of King Lear, indicates that it probably won’t end happily. Still, in that one performance, everything worked. Speaks to a spectacular quality of acting I sometimes find in Winedale.

I would compare that performance, rank it on par with the RSC version on stage in London, way back. Perhaps better than the RSC.
In both versions, performances, at the end, I cried. Not like this sneaks up, not like I don’t know ahead of time how the play ends, look at the title, “The Tragedy of King Lear,” not comedy, no happy ending.

Seeing a wizened and seasoned actor, classically trained, on stage in London, then my response is easily understandable. He played it well, and that’s was my benchmark for the play. Some of the supporting characters were familiar from movie screens, so that made it appealing, but the RSC version started to fade, and replaced by that Winedale version.

Strange, seeing a kid in an iffy costume and dubious make-up so thoroughly capture a part of the tragic king.
That’s a Shakespeare performance that sticks with me. He evoked the part so well, in my bones, I felt the tragedy unfold.
Never mind I tried to do bits of it myself, failed miserably, and appreciate the work of the actors even more for my efforts.

As far as a Favorite Shakespeare Performance goes, that version of King Lear was a winner. Then, too, I had, the winter before, tried to recite the lines about eclipses, and I had, in my mind, failed miserably.

I tried, can’t fault me for that, but it makes the work of those kids on stage that much more valuable to me, watching someone who has really rolled the words around and does the delivery correctly. Correctly, as far as I could hear.

That’s brilliance, and even a year later, I got to compliment the actor.

“You played Lear last year? Brilliant.”

Like many aspects of life, time spent in serious contemplation and work at perfecting a craft can pay off in big numbers. Learning those roles, then doing justice to the words themselves, even an unlettered audience an appreciate the efforts and reap the rewards.

Favorite Shakespeare Performance 2

It’s the version that stuck with me the most, and that makes it a favorite Shakespeare performance. I was altered after seeing the play, changed, charged, and chagrined.

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