By William Shakespeare.

Supported by: men@play

HOW COULD A 400 YEAR OLD PLAY ABOUT VANITY, MATERIALISM AND DISILLUSIONMENT HAVE ANY RELEVANCE TODAY?

King Lear is widely regarded as Shakespeare's crowning achievement, one of the great humanist masterpieces of all time.

Of all Shakespeare's tragedies, King Lear is the darkest and the most spiritually profound, a meditation on loyalty, nature and family. An ageing king makes a capricious decision to divide his realm among his three daughters according to the love they express for him. When the youngest daughter refuses to take part in this charade, she is banished, leaving the King dependent on her manipulative and untrustworthy sisters. In the scheming and recriminations that follow, not only does the King's sanity crumble, but the stability of the realm itself is threatened.

21 years after he last tackled the title role, legendary stage actor and former Artistic Director of State Theatre Company, John Gaden, returns to the Dunstan Playhouse stage in this landmark theatre event.

"To attempt to give a description of the play itself or of its effect upon the mind, is mere impertinence... the best of all Shakespeare's plays." William Hazlitt

"The most perfect specimen of the dramatic art in the world." Peter Bysshe Shelley