Review of King Lear

The entire cast of this production breathe quality into it, without exception. I accept the reading of Lear as a petulant, raging spoilt old man of former power, wanting to bestow his favours upon a grateful audience, expecting to live in grandeur from the ample residue of gratitude he expected to garnish from his generosity for some time forward. I accept the grabbing sisters and dumbfounded sibling, and I am spellbound by the parallel tale of Gloucester's progeny as it binds itself into the main theme. The idiocy of the king, as his retirement is filled with a carebound yet carefree madness, and the final realisation of Lear's love for Cordeila at her death took me through a full journey through the landscape, filling me with (sniffed in) tears when I first saw it in 1983 at 17 years old, and it is still powerful now. My only complaint is about the quality of the VHS version I have. If only I knew which was the best DVD version to replace it with...