Player Kings - Wimbledon / MCR / Noel Coward / Tour

From memory David Warner wasn’t notably fat in the Michael Boyd cycle. Miscast, but not fat.

Maybe there isn't. I don't pay attention too much tbh to RSC so I didn't like to assume. I just know every time I see a commercial production it always seems to be concept or modern in some way.

Traditional costume is very much the exception rather than the rule at the RSC, I couldn't remember the last production though someone will know. Heritage Shakespeare is very much the sole preserve of The Globe. 

The only RSC Tudor period play in recent years was The Mirror and the Light.

If you’d prefer the matinee you have free ticket exchange with ATG+ remember

That is a weak reason for stopping seeing live Shakespeare.

I saw that production twice and the rending of the garments was not an obtrusive part of the staging.

It felt like a natural way for the distracted Lear to behave.

Trying to think, but possibly the only ones I’ve seen in Elizabethan dress would be some of Terry Hands’ productions at Theatr Clwyd, and those would be about 10 years back.

But anyway… Booked front row for the matinee in Manchester. Icke’s Hamlet with Andrew Scott was great, so looking forward to seeing what he does with McKellen.

Did I read somewhere that McKellen’s himself wasn’t entirely happy with that production of King Lear, hence doing it again a few years ago?

Where does it say 4 hours? Wimbledon has a Saturday matinee 230 and evening performance 630pm….

www.atgtickets.com/shows/player-kings/new-wimbledon-theatre/

Anyone with membership (who already can access the booking as I understand) could comment on the price bands please?

Screengrabs posted earlier in thread with prices

Greer takes the view that "King Lear is the greatest poem in the language" so dislikes any production that has any sort of directorial intervention that means the actors aren't just standing there chanting the lines in the sing-song way that was popular 100 years ago. It is absurd, because King Lear isn't a poem. McKellen though was quite affected by that review. When I saw an early performance he had a small hand tremor at all times indicating Lear's frailty but when I saw it later he'd eliminated that because Greer had moaned about it. In any event that production was beset by behind the scenes problems and clashes between the actors so wasn't one of the best. That meant he played the role again later. Here's what Greer said about the audience for that production in Stratford:

"The 1,000-strong audience is composed of a minority of geriatrics who haven't got out of the theatre-going habit, and a majority of teenaged school-trippers bussed in from various grim hostelries in the environs of Stratford. Most of the members of the audience don't have English as their first language."

OAM, McKellen once said he'd never play Falstaff because Roger Allam had been perfect in the role. 

McKellen is the greatest Shakespearean actor I've ever seen on stage but the last really great performance I saw from him was in 1990 and many of his great roles were more than 50 years ago so it is impossible for most of us to judge him.  

Tickets aren't exactly flying out. I wonder if they can fill Manchester's Opera House before the run starts? Sir Ian is a huge name, but 4 hours of Shakespeare at an atypical start time might be too much of an ask. We shall see!