King Lear - Peter Brook...need help (1 Viewer)

[Tommm]

Hey i have to write a 2000 word essay on different productions of Lear and i chose to do Peter Brooks 1962 absurdist/existentialist production as one of them. Does anyone have any notes on themes and ideas in it????

 

[Trev]

nop - but on the topic, is this something we have to cover in the module - 'different productions'? just wondering if we will be doing something similar?!

 

[Tommm]

yep everyone who's doing king lear has to write about different interpretations/readings of king lear.

 

[goan_crazy]

yep everyone who's doing king lear has to write about different interpretations/readings of king lear.

me! ill post my assessment requirements up

 

[Jacks]

well as you should be aware this version of king kear is a very nihilistic one...it conveys the idea that life is insignificant and that living life is meaningless ...nothing good can come of it etc...I suggest that you just search the internet, use google I'm sure there will be plenty there. Try and link the themes you come across to the context in which the film was created...i.e. how do they reflect the values of the time etc.

If you can maybe you should read an essay titled "King Lear or Endgame", written by Jan Kott...this essay influenced Brook's version...

 

[withoutaface]

Look at the ways Brook creates chaos and nothingness through the black and white, the movement of scenes and the removal of characters. Also he demonises the character of Edgar, through making the killing of his brother at the end more ruthless.

 

[kami]

You could also view Brook's version in a feminist fashion as several of the scenes are shown more from the elder sister's viewpoint and also Gonnerill's final madness and suicide seems more a reflection of Lear's more "noble" madness suggesting a humanity in Gonerrill. Also Cordelia's input in this version is reduced so that there is less of a contrast between thee 3 sister's which suggests a neutrality in all of them as well as their treatment of Lear.
Sorry that's all I remember at the moment