The Lear Diaries

The Story of the Royal National Theatre's Productions of Shakespeare's Richard III and King Lear. This is the diary of Brian Cox, in which he describes the emotional and physical problems that came with playing the all-consuming role of King Lear. It also reveals the personal strains of touring, in particular the problems of being separated from his family as he embarks on a year-long tour. One of the most frank and authentic accounts yet written of the pressures placed on today's stars King Lear is perhaps the most challenging role in the Shakespearian canon. In 1991, directed by Deborah Warner, Brian Cox gave a highly-acclaimed performance. In this compulsive account of a theatrical journey, Cox describes the rehearsal room investigation in the possibilities of the text in performance as the production toured to Bucharest and Tokyo, Cairo and Paris in the wake of Perestroika and with the Gulf War gathering momentum in the early '90s. But this is also a personal story; for Lear, like Hamlet is a part notorious for consuming it's players and Cox is not only separated from his family for months, but also trying to negotiate a window in the storm to get married as he plays the character of an old man, rejected by his daughters and friends and sunk in madness.

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