King Lear Criticism         The play King Lear was an over-all

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

download word file, 1 pages 0.0

Downloaded 1095 times

King Lear Criticism The play King Lear was an over-all mediocre presentation. In the sense of acting, King Lear was extremely successful. However, in the sense of production King Lear was bland and in my opinion somewhat a failure. Thus, making The Tragedie of King Lear a tragedy itself, due to a lack of "eye-catching" setting and lighting.

As far as acting goes my attention was more than caught. I believe this play was very well cast. King Lear who was played by Rod Loomis fit his character perfectly. He is identical to the King Lear I envisioned after reading the play. His old age was very apparent and he made the audience believe that he in fact was King Lear. Starina Johnson who played Goneril was magnificent especially with her portrayal of Goneril's evilness and vindictiveness. Although, I believe Mindy Youroukos playing Regan was a bad idea because she did not resemble her sisters at all.

Mindy had extremely red hair and very exaggerated features completely unlike her cast sisters. Kara Shaw who played Cordelia I also thought was amazing. She looked so sweet and appeared younger than the other "sisters." Regardless of appearance though, these characters were outstanding and have ample talent, in my onion.

However, contrary to the outstanding acting, everything else was seemingly lacking. The set was extremely plain and there were no set changes at all. The set consisted of a backdrop of beige colored hemp curtains and a grayish floor. This was extremely disappointing. There were merely some props brought on stage including: the King's chair, the map of land, and the "stretchers" for the ill. Also, besides a lack of varying sets there were seemingly no changes in lighting. Therefore, as far as the set and lighting, I thought the play was lacking.

In conclusion, I would recommend this play to be seen only because of its superior actors. However, I believe this play could have brought so much more to the audience by creating a more eye-catching set and extreme changes in lighting.