May 31st, 2007 by John Murphy
A good friend of mine is across the pond, as they say, studying abroad in London. As a theater major, she’s doing some exhaustive “homework” taking in a whole slew of London stage productions. Naked Harry Potter, for one (Daniel Radcliffe in Peter Shaffer’s Equus) to which Rachael reports that “he’s definitely growing up.”
A naked Harry Potter is not quite my cup of tea. The production she recently took in that made me seethe with jealousy, frothing at the mouth and nearly requiring medical attention, was Ian Mckellen’s King Lear. Some people say as a matter of speech that they’d “give their right arm” to see such-and-such a production. I would literally give my right pinkie finger, or at least half of it, to see Mckellen as Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He’s that good.
So – one of this century’s foremost interpreters of Shakespeare is currently on stage in London in a career-crowning performance as Lear, the Mt. Everest of acting challenges, and I’m over here in Oregon. That’s great.
ACHHH!!! Somebody put money in my purse! (And I’ll send you half my pinkie finger.)
Note that Rachael is ALSO seeing (just to add insult to injury), Ian Mckellen in Chekhov’s The Seagull.
Posted in "Put money in my purse!", King Lear, McKellen
