King Lear on the Stage: A Producer’s Reflections

Summary

More than once it has been said that King Lear is unsuited for the stage. Most of those who have expressed this opinion were not connected with the theatre and consequently we might perhaps be prepared to set their opinions aside; but recently the same judgement on the play has been passed by one whose words deserve very careful consideration. Miss Margaret Webster, descended from a well-known stage family, is an actress herself and a director responsible for numerous Shakespeare productions in England and the United States, and when, after an acute examination of the text, in her Shakespeare Today she questions the theatrical value of King Lear , obviously her words must be duly weighed.

For myself I am at variance with her, and perhaps the fact that, as director of the Teatr Polski in Warsaw, during the course of forty years (of which ten war years were theatrically wasted) I have had the opportunity of directing twenty-one productions of Shakespeare's dramas, including King Lear, justifies my entry into this long-continuing debate—a debate which presumably will not be closed either by Miss Webster's remarks or my own.