By Cal
Link to Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWyfBfRxhmk
Episode 1 with subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rey2Zp7KAwk
Other episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRc2lmDAjXa1_wLCuL-PKFw/videos
Available until: Unknown
There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare plays which have been made digitally available in lockdown, but all of them can teach you something new about the plays that inspired them and Lear Alone is definitely not the exception. On the contrary.
By Louise
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1hzjxF88nA
Available until: Unknown
King Lear is the latest play in a long series of Zoom plays which have been presented by UK Actors Support Network throughout lockdown. Other highlights have included well-known plays like The Winter’s Tale and The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as plays I hadn’t heard of like Hindle Wakes.
By Louise
Link to playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp9ljWlQivIN3lhFgJNXBZ9zZyzPnxcon
Available until: Unknown
This is a really lovely and clever
adaption of King Lear, set in the COVID era. There are sixteen episodes,
all a couple of minutes long and it looks like they were posted on sixteen
consecutive days.
The series was written by Abey
Bradbury and it’s so good. She takes all the important events in King Lear
and fits them really convincingly into the modern COVID world. It really
surprised me how well it worked. King Lear is about the dividing up of
lands and it has a very historical feel (King Lear is thought of as
Shakespeare’s fictional King, but he’s based on a legendary King called King
Leir), but I suppose the lands aren’t really the important part of the play –
it’s about the relationships between parents and children. That is something
which has gone on for centuries and will probably continue to go on forever.
By Aashiq
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpS33G8-HyM
Available until: Forever and ever
Trigger warnings: violence, blood, gore, implied vomit,
suicide attempt, flashing lights and lots of death. I got my husband to hold my
hand and I thoroughly recommend it (just not with MY husband. Get your own).
I really wanted to review this one because this is the only
Shakespeare play I’ve been in! I played Gloucester. I’m obviously much too
young and handsome to play Gloucester (I wanted to play Regan), but student
productions tend not to have a very big age range. We got to do some of it on a
trip to the Globe too! But obviously when I’m telling people I don’t always go
into that much detail because who wants to hear details? So I usually just say
‘I played Gloucester in King Lear at the Globe’. I’m not usually
succinct, but I do like to make the occasional exception.
