National Theater Live: King Lear

Derek Jacobi isn't one of my favorite actors. I know he's very well thought of, but I often find his delivery of the Shakespearean line to be something akin to thundering down the hill in a runaway train and crashing in the valley - that's the end-stop - below. Over and over and over again, for hours on end. It wears me out.

 HOWEVER, last weekend I attended (thanks to the Shakespeare class teacher at the university where I work) a telecast in a Portland theater of the well-reviewed National Theatre Live/ Donmar production of King Lear, starring Jacobi. We haven't gotten to King Lear yet - difficult as it may be to believe, the Donmar does not schedule its productions around What Shall Shakespeare Say Today - but these telecasts don't come here too often, and I really wanted to check it out, whether Jacobi was the star or not, and never mind the reading schedule. And I'm happy to report...

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