The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare (1603)

An aging king's vanity brings wrack and ruin to his country.

Play Review: King Lear is Shakespeare's play about old age (and ageism), just as he had previously examined sexism (The Taming of the Shrew), racism (Othello), and antisemitism (The Merchant of Venice). Shakespeare, always so far ahead of his time that he's still relevant today -- it's interesting to see how society has changed (and is unchanged) in the last four centuries. A play set in England (for a change), the aged King overconfident in his kingship to the point of arrogance and tyranny. Approaching his dotage or madness, Lear decides to ease the burdens of his duties by dividing his kingdom among his three daughters. But his favorite, Cordelia, the youngest, refuses to flatter him (believing her love should be enough) and is banished. When Lear's most faithful retainer, Kent, speaks in Cordelia's defense, he too is banished. But as the play continues Lear's faithless daughters turn on him. Goneril and Regan seem almost more like wicked stepsisters, but are complex characters and carry the play whenever they're on stage. The parallel for Lear is the also-aging Gloucester and his two sons (yes, sons as well as daughters are untrustworthy). Gloucester also foolishly trusts the child who betrays him (his illegitimate son Edmund) and banishes the faithful child. So the teams are drawn and we have the battle of the filial children, Cordelia and Edgar, against the serpent's teeth of the thankless children, Goneril, Regan, and Edmund. The two daughters just seem like bad seed, using Lear's decaying age and foolish trust against him to take his power and transform him into a homeless king. Edmund, at least, has an understandable motivation in desiring the patrimony a society that punishes the innocent bastard (but not the sinner) would deny him. Unlike Iago trying madly to destroy the Other, Edmund's only goal is to right an unfair world, at least as he sees it. King Lear is a more plotted play than usual, more emotional than psychological. Emotions run high for both characters and audience as both encounter almost endless suffering from start to finish. Extreme suffering, leavened only by periodic black or inappropriate humor, but not all that funny; sardonic is the word I'm looking for here. Again, as we're accustomed in Shakespeare's tragedies, by the end of the play the bodies have piled up and litter the stage. This is more straightforward play than some of the others. King Lear is accessible, less dependent on and susceptible to deep criticism, but more emotionally wrenching and a sad commentary on the perils of aging in an ungrateful world. Rather than appreciate the contributions of our parents and the older generation, we only want them to get out of the way.  [4½★]