I very recently went to Stratford Upon Avon - the birthplace of Shakespeare. The town itself reveres in the fact that the Bard was born their. Many of the pubs have names in order to honour the genius. Sir Ian McKellen was not, during this viewing of the production, playing King Lear, whose mentality slowly degrades throughout the play. The synopsis is on Wikipedia. It's much to long to fit in a short review which I hope to write while the experience is still fresh in my mind. The acting itself was remarkable - not unexpected as this is the RSC - but it is still amazing to watch the the expressions of horror written upon the actors faces ...  Read the complete review

Note: ------- Let’s get one thing straight. I’m going to try and get through this review WITHOUT mentioning a certain fact relating to the lead actor that virtually every professional review I’ve read of this play seems to be obsessed with, Having lived less than 20 miles of Stratford for 6 years, I felt I should finally drag myself off and see one of the Bard’s plays at his birthplace. I’m not the biggest Shakespeare fan, so to break my duck, I chose King Lear. The main attraction being that it starred Sir Ian McKellen - arguably the country’s finest living actor. Venue -------- First of all, a bit about the theatre. This ...  Read the complete review

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____The Review______ As i'm a sixth form student and one of my subjects is English Literature, I was lucky enough to get a free ticket to see the rather talked about performance of King Lear in Stratford (The Royal Shakespeare company). So after watching this just last night, I thought it was about time I rated something a littler classier than my usual choices! I've never read King Lear before and didn't really know what it was about-just the bare basics. I'm also not the most Shakespear savvy person in the world, though saying that, I certainly grasped what was ...  Read the complete review

To celebrate some Shakespearean anniversary or other, the Royal Shakespeare Company has staged all of Shakespeare’s plays over the last year in Stratford. They obviously needed something big for their finale, and this is it: King Lear, starring Ian McKellan and directed by Trevor Nunn. Not really something any self-respecting theatre-goer could miss; I hauled myself all the way up to Warwickshire to see it. Was it worth it? (Well, in a sense I couldn’t lose, as I went with my mum who very generously bought my ticket for me). It’s on in the Courtyard Theatre, which is a temporary replacement for the main Royal Shakespeare Theatre, currently being rebuilt (good ...  Read the complete review