King Lear

In rehearsals
The following are extracts from Jacqui O’Hanlon’s rehearsal diary. Jacqui is RSC Education’s Creative Support Leader for the 2004 Tragedies season.

Week 4
Wednesday 12th May
It’s a very stop/start rehearsal, with the actors working a bit of the scene at a time and the director, Bill Alexander, stopping them and adding ideas or asking questions about character motivation and relationships.

Act 2 scene 2
Much talk centres around the character of Cornwall, who is clearly excited and corrupted by the opportunity of having power. Anatol Yusef (Cornwall) reminds me of an Arturo Ui figure, making decisions about people’s lives as if he were deciding what to have for breakfast. Bill says that Cornwall could either kill Kent or decide that he’s a great guy. Cornwall’s power is like a new toy. He misuses it simply because he can. There is a moment when Kent requests that Cornwall does not bring out the stocks for him since he is the king’s messenger - Cornwall pauses to think about it and then gleefully claps his hands and calls out “Fetch forth the stocks.” Gloucester comes forward, horrified at the way they are treating the king’s messenger and by the way it is being done. His speech is like a parliamentary speech on justice. The scene illustrates how power is gradually taken from under Lear.

Act 2 scene 4 - Kent’s motivation
This is the first time I’ve seen Corin Redgrave playing Lear and already it is very powerful, very moving. There’s a discussion about the scene between Kent and Lear and the fact that Kent’s revelation that it was Lear’s daughter who had put him in the stocks, sends Lear into a passion. Maybe Kent regrets having spoken as he did and having this effect on the king, so his following long speech is motivated by a desire to calm the king down. It is interesting to look at Kent’s speech (lines 27 - 44) in terms of playing different objectives: Kent could be trying to calm Lear down or he could play it as though he’s trying to defend himself and blame Lear’s daughters. They decide to play it that Kent has unleashed a passion in Lear that he hadn’t expected and is trying to limit the damage by calming him down / soothing him - Bill really likes Louis Hillyer playing the speech that way.

The role of the Fool
They talk about the Fool’s role in Act 2 scene 4, starting with ‘Winter’s not gone yet if the wild geese fly ……’ Bill asks John Normington to play this as if he is trying to distract the king. He tells John to put on a performance for Lear - the satirical review version of events. Since Lear’s towering passion could cause an aneurism, the fool distracts him ot avert disaster. Lear wants to explode. Bill encourages the actors to find the humour in the scene in the midst of the pain Lear feels. There is a lovely moment when Louis (Kent) is chained up and makes a move as if to follow Lear. Lear stops him with “follow me not”, the joke being that Kent couldn’t follow Lear even if he wanted to because he’s shackled.

On the repercussions of Lear’s actions
Bill says that Gonerill’s rejection and treatment of Lear has generated in him an outrage of wrongs not only done to him, but to others as well. By giving something away, he has made other people vulnerable. His heart opens in effect to others because of the wrongs done to him. Lear is grateful to the Fool for trying to cheer him up. Bill advises John to play the Fool’s final speech in the scene (lines 117-121) as though he is trying very hard to calming Lear down and suggest he may even stroke the king as he speaks. Kent is, to an extent, responsible for the present terrible situation - if he hadn’t beaten up Oswald, Regan and Cornwall would perhaps have been there to meet Lear.

Lear and Regan
On the entrance of Regan, Lear decides it’s all never happened - the business with Kent being put in the stocks/chained up, his annoyance with Regan. He consciously tutors himself into a different performance. A performance that says Gonerill is my enemy and you (Regan) are my darling. He rewrites what has just happened. Regan’s line “You are old” seems to ring out. Lear mockingly acts out to Regan what he would look like if he apologised to Gonerill. It’s rather grotesque, a charade. When Regan asks Lear if he would treat her in the same way, Bill tells Corin to change his focus so that he makes HER (Regan) the centre of attention. It’s as though Gonerill has been a spectre in the scene between them but now she is gone. Later on Lear will get angry about Kent’s treatment, but at the moment he’s going to act out ‘I’m being nice to Regan’ - only he blurts out ‘who put my man in the stocks?’.

They decide in the company that Lear is a father who obviously does divide and rule. He used to be able to take Regan to one side and complain about Gonerill and she would listen. But now Gonerill and Regan are really trying to keep their pledge to each other. There is an example in the scene of a stage direction written into the text when Lear asks Regan why she has taken Gonerill’s hand. Bill asks everyone to think about how each person feels with Gonerill’s entrance. Maybe the Fool composes a little song about it when he sees her -for use later. Cornwall is in “no nonsense” mode when he says he was responsible for putting Kent in the stocks. Lear must have deflated for Regan to say, “Father, being weak, I pray you seem so” (line 196). Everyone is saying, ‘look, just accept the fact that you’re old.’ Regan’s line “And in good time you gave it” reveals much malice underneath.

Emily Raymond (Gonerill) says that she feels from Gonerill’s point of view there is a sense that if they don’t nip Lear in the bud now they’ll be held to ransom in the future. She wants him to have no men - she just wants him to be an old man and accept he’s an old man so she can sit him in a room with a servant bringing him hot chocolate. She must have made this clear in the letters she’s sent to Regan, but Emily feels she has come herself to Gloucester’s castle just to make sure that Regan is fully on board and that everything is going to plan. In effect Gonerill wants to castrate Lear, because in the last scene she had with him, he says he going to take the crown back. Regan and Gonerill going from 50 to 25 to one man comes about, not from pre-meditation, but through having found a momentum and following it.

Wednesday 19th May
In the rehearsal room there is a clothes rail with lots of period style clothes for the actors to work with. There are also benches and tables and a dressing table.

Act 3 scene 1
Bill describes this scene as the eye witness account of what has happened to Lear. He encourages the gentleman to have an inner authority and command to counteract the wildness / desperation of Kent. What Bill is looking for, he says, is two different energies in the scene - a still against an active, restless energy.

Act 3 scene 2
The famous ‘Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks’ scene. Corin Redgrave as Lear enters the scene holding the Fool’s hand. They talk about the relationship between the Fool and Lear. Often the Fool is played by a younger actor, but here they’ve decided to play them as having grown up together - this Fool (Archie!) has always been Lear’s fool. They spend a great deal of time working on the blocking of the scene in very precise detail. Two lines strike me powerfully: “I am more sinned against than sinning” and “The younger rises when the old doth fall.”

Act 3 scene 3
A very short scene between Gloucester and Edmund. Bill tells Matthew Rhys (Edmund) to be neutral and non-descript and to keep a straight face throughout. He tells David Hargreaves (Gloucester) that, apart from the blinding, this is the greatest moment of transformation in the play for Gloucester - his house has been taken away from him by the sisters.

Act 3 scene 4 - Poor Tom
“That way madness lies.” Bill and Corin agree that this is the most sane thing Lear says in the play. References about madness from Lear: ‘Do not make me mad’ and ‘O fool I shall go mad’. Lear is only able to see his own situation when he sees ‘Poor Tom’. He sees a mad man with no clothes, raving, and assumes he’s been misused by his daughters and left with nothing. Bill tells the actors that the scene should feel as if Lear has evoked this spirit. From the moment of Edgar’s entrance, Lear should be in amazement. For the first time in his life, his prayers seem to have been answered. His response to Edgar should be one of awe. Bill makes the point that filial ingratitude is the worst pain you can feel. Lear says “Wilt break my heart?” He’s saying ‘you think this is bad for me (being in the storm without shelter) but it’s nothing to me in comparison to the suffering I have experienced.’ Of course, Edgar won’t want to go into Gloucester’s house, he wants to stay in the hovel. There’ll be wanted posters all over the place with his picture on it. Ironically, that’s where he’s being taken. In this production ‘Poor Tom’ has been living in the sewers of Gloucester’s house.

Act 3 scene 5
Cornwall and Edmund
This scene marks Cornwall’s ability to be able to move things on without his wife, who is absent from the scene. Cornwall begins the journey towards being able to blind Gloucester. Because he has a sense that his wife finds Edmond attractive, he has two choices: either he can be brittle and jealous or he can try to befriend Edmund. He chooses the latter, perhaps because if Edmund grows to love Cornwall, he’ll never take Regan away from him. In this scene, we see Edmund and Cornwall become colleagues. Anatol Yusef (Cornwall) feels Cornwall’s married to Regan because he’s weak. Bill has no doubt that Cornwall is in love with Regan, although Regan isn’t in love with Cornwall. Cornwall doesn’t feel powerful and that’s why he lusts after power and abuses what little he gets. He begins to enjoy playing people off against each other - he enjoys their dependency on him. Anatol and Matthew talk about the fact that there’s a part of Edmund that represents everything Cornwall wants to be.


			The following are extracts from Jacqui O’Hanlon’s rehearsal diary. Jacqui is RSC Education’s Creative Support Leader for the 2004 Tragedies season. It’s a very stop/start rehearsal, with the actors working a bit of the scene at a time and the director, Bill Alexander, stopping them and adding ideas or asking questions about character motivation and relationships. Much talk centres around the character of Cornwall, who is clearly excited and corrupted by the opportunity of having power. Anatol Yusef (Cornwall) reminds me of an Arturo Ui figure, making decisions about people’s lives as if he were deciding what to have for breakfast. Bill says that Cornwall could either kill Kent or decide that he’s a great guy. Cornwall’s power is like a new toy. He misuses it simply because he can. There is a moment when Kent requests that Cornwall does not bring out the stocks for him since he is the king’s messenger - Cornwall pauses to think about it and then gleefully claps his hands and calls out “Fetch forth the stocks.” Gloucester comes forward, horrified at the way they are treating the king’s messenger and by the way it is being done. His speech is like a parliamentary speech on justice. The scene illustrates how power is gradually taken from under Lear. This is the first time I’ve seen Corin Redgrave playing Lear and already it is very powerful, very moving. There’s a discussion about the scene between Kent and Lear and the fact that Kent’s revelation that it was Lear’s daughter who had put him in the stocks, sends Lear into a passion. Maybe Kent regrets having spoken as he did and having this effect on the king, so his following long speech is motivated by a desire to calm the king down. It is interesting to look at Kent’s speech (lines 27 - 44) in terms of playing different objectives: Kent could be trying to calm Lear down or he could play it as though he’s trying to defend himself and blame Lear’s daughters. They decide to play it that Kent has unleashed a passion in Lear that he hadn’t expected and is trying to limit the damage by calming him down / soothing him - Bill really likes Louis Hillyer playing the speech that way. They talk about the Fool’s role in Act 2 scene 4, starting with ‘Winter’s not gone yet if the wild geese fly ……’ Bill asks John Normington to play this as if he is trying to distract the king. He tells John to put on a performance for Lear - the satirical review version of events. Since Lear’s towering passion could cause an aneurism, the fool distracts him ot avert disaster. Lear wants to explode. Bill encourages the actors to find the humour in the scene in the midst of the pain Lear feels. There is a lovely moment when Louis (Kent) is chained up and makes a move as if to follow Lear. Lear stops him with “follow me not”, the joke being that Kent couldn’t follow Lear even if he wanted to because he’s shackled. Bill says that Gonerill’s rejection and treatment of Lear has generated in him an outrage of wrongs not only done to him, but to others as well. By giving something away, he has made other people vulnerable. His heart opens in effect to others because of the wrongs done to him. Lear is grateful to the Fool for trying to cheer him up. Bill advises John to play the Fool’s final speech in the scene (lines 117-121) as though he is trying very hard to calming Lear down and suggest he may even stroke the king as he speaks. Kent is, to an extent, responsible for the present terrible situation - if he hadn’t beaten up Oswald, Regan and Cornwall would perhaps have been there to meet Lear. On the entrance of Regan, Lear decides it’s all never happened - the business with Kent being put in the stocks/chained up, his annoyance with Regan. He consciously tutors himself into a different performance. A performance that says Gonerill is my enemy and you (Regan) are my darling. He rewrites what has just happened. Regan’s line “You are old” seems to ring out. Lear mockingly acts out to Regan what he would look like if he apologised to Gonerill. It’s rather grotesque, a charade. When Regan asks Lear if he would treat her in the same way, Bill tells Corin to change his focus so that he makes HER (Regan) the centre of attention. It’s as though Gonerill has been a spectre in the scene between them but now she is gone. Later on Lear will get angry about Kent’s treatment, but at the moment he’s going to act out ‘I’m being nice to Regan’ - only he blurts out ‘who put my man in the stocks?’. They decide in the company that Lear is a father who obviously does divide and rule. He used to be able to take Regan to one side and complain about Gonerill and she would listen. But now Gonerill and Regan are really trying to keep their pledge to each other. There is an example in the scene of a stage direction written into the text when Lear asks Regan why she has taken Gonerill’s hand. Bill asks everyone to think about how each person feels with Gonerill’s entrance. Maybe the Fool composes a little song about it when he sees her -for use later. Cornwall is in “no nonsense” mode when he says he was responsible for putting Kent in the stocks. Lear must have deflated for Regan to say, “Father, being weak, I pray you seem so” (line 196). Everyone is saying, ‘look, just accept the fact that you’re old.’ Regan’s line “And in good time you gave it” reveals much malice underneath. Emily Raymond (Gonerill) says that she feels from Gonerill’s point of view there is a sense that if they don’t nip Lear in the bud now they’ll be held to ransom in the future. She wants him to have no men - she just wants him to be an old man and accept he’s an old man so she can sit him in a room with a servant bringing him hot chocolate. She must have made this clear in the letters she’s sent to Regan, but Emily feels she has come herself to Gloucester’s castle just to make sure that Regan is fully on board and that everything is going to plan. In effect Gonerill wants to castrate Lear, because in the last scene she had with him, he says he going to take the crown back. Regan and Gonerill going from 50 to 25 to one man comes about, not from pre-meditation, but through having found a momentum and following it. In the rehearsal room there is a clothes rail with lots of period style clothes for the actors to work with. There are also benches and tables and a dressing table. Bill describes this scene as the eye witness account of what has happened to Lear. He encourages the gentleman to have an inner authority and command to counteract the wildness / desperation of Kent. What Bill is looking for, he says, is two different energies in the scene - a still against an active, restless energy. The famous ‘Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks’ scene. Corin Redgrave as Lear enters the scene holding the Fool’s hand. They talk about the relationship between the Fool and Lear. Often the Fool is played by a younger actor, but here they’ve decided to play them as having grown up together - this Fool (Archie!) has always been Lear’s fool. They spend a great deal of time working on the blocking of the scene in very precise detail. Two lines strike me powerfully: “I am more sinned against than sinning” and “The younger rises when the old doth fall.” A very short scene between Gloucester and Edmund. Bill tells Matthew Rhys (Edmund) to be neutral and non-descript and to keep a straight face throughout. He tells David Hargreaves (Gloucester) that, apart from the blinding, this is the greatest moment of transformation in the play for Gloucester - his house has been taken away from him by the sisters. “That way madness lies.” Bill and Corin agree that this is the most sane thing Lear says in the play. References about madness from Lear: ‘Do not make me mad’ and ‘O fool I shall go mad’. Lear is only able to see his own situation when he sees ‘Poor Tom’. He sees a mad man with no clothes, raving, and assumes he’s been misused by his daughters and left with nothing. Bill tells the actors that the scene should feel as if Lear has evoked this spirit. From the moment of Edgar’s entrance, Lear should be in amazement. For the first time in his life, his prayers seem to have been answered. His response to Edgar should be one of awe. Bill makes the point that filial ingratitude is the worst pain you can feel. Lear says “Wilt break my heart?” He’s saying ‘you think this is bad for me (being in the storm without shelter) but it’s nothing to me in comparison to the suffering I have experienced.’ Of course, Edgar won’t want to go into Gloucester’s house, he wants to stay in the hovel. There’ll be wanted posters all over the place with his picture on it. Ironically, that’s where he’s being taken. In this production ‘Poor Tom’ has been living in the sewers of Gloucester’s house. This scene marks Cornwall’s ability to be able to move things on without his wife, who is absent from the scene. Cornwall begins the journey towards being able to blind Gloucester. Because he has a sense that his wife finds Edmond attractive, he has two choices: either he can be brittle and jealous or he can try to befriend Edmund. He chooses the latter, perhaps because if Edmund grows to love Cornwall, he’ll never take Regan away from him. In this scene, we see Edmund and Cornwall become colleagues. Anatol Yusef (Cornwall) feels Cornwall’s married to Regan because he’s weak. Bill has no doubt that Cornwall is in love with Regan, although Regan isn’t in love with Cornwall. Cornwall doesn’t feel powerful and that’s why he lusts after power and abuses what little he gets. He begins to enjoy playing people off against each other - he enjoys their dependency on him. Anatol and Matthew talk about the fact that there’s a part of Edmund that represents everything Cornwall wants to be.