king lear

By Catherine Jones on Oct 29, 08 11:33 AM

How exciting is this? Only 24 hours until Pete "the Poss" Postlethwaite steps out on the Everyman stage for the first night of King Lear.
Press night is next week and there's a real air of anticipation - not least from myself because despite going to the RSC at Stratford regularly as a schoolgirl and as a reviewer, I've never seen this particular Shakespearean tragedy before.
I've sat through Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. TWICE. And very good it was too. I've seen Ben Kingsley's Othello (David Suchet was the scheming Iago) and I've even watched Sean Bean wielding a sword in Romeo and Juliet.
But for some reason King Lear has never stepped my way.

Mind you, from what I hear, we could have been seeing a lot more of Pete Postlethwaite than we'd anticipated too.
I hear a rumour that at one point the veteran thesp was considering baring all for the role.
Pete's posterior on full show? King Lear? It could have been more like King Leer. And think of the chill factor - it's never that warm in the Everyman and that cold could play havoc with the joints.
Anyway, obviously he and director Rupert Goold have decided against it because I now hear we'll definately be getting a clothed king and not an Emperor's new clothes monarch.
But whatever the dress code, it's certainly one of the most hotly-anticipated events of culture year.