The Essay: Reading the First Folio

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The Essay: Reading the First Folio: Sir Richard Eyre on King Lear

Sir Richard Eyre on King Lear

Reading the First Folio

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Reading the First Folio, Sir Richard Eyre on King Lear

Director Richard Eyre chooses a speech by Lear to his daughter Cordelia - Act 5, Scene 3.

In the first essay in Reading the First Folio, celebrated director Richard Eyre chooses 'Lear's simple, humane, humble, loving, gentle words' from Act 5, Scene 3 of the play.

400 years after the publication of William Shakespeare's First Folio, five writers are each asked to pick a speech from one of the Folio's plays, tell it what they think it means, and what it means to them. In the first essay of this series, award-winning theatre and film director Sir Richard Eyre chooses a speech from his favourite Shakespeare play: King Lear.

Richard's choice is a speech by Lear from Act 5, Scene 3 of the play. At this point, Lear and his daughter Cordelia are reunited but are about to be dragged off to prison. Richard reveals why he finds Lear's words so moving - after sound and fury, there's quiet: "birds in a cage" and "gilded butterflies." Richard tells us when he first encountered Shakespeare and about when he first felt ready to direct King Lear. He explores how directors have to pick and choose between the Folio version and the Quarto text of the play. He reflects on the power of Lear and Cordelia's relationship and how it evolves through the play. 

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Essays marking the 400th anniversary of the printing of Shakespeare's First Folio in 1623.

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