This overwhelmingly bleak and desolate portrayal of my favorite Shakespeare play leaves little to be desired. I fashion myself a purist and am all but completely unbothered by the abridged nature of Brook's vision. Everything that should be there is. The transplanting of setting to some scandanavian tundra is little problem, for it provides the harshness and nothingness of Lear's pre-Christian environment to be all the more oppressive. Perhaps the most memorable scene is when Kent is out in the stocks, and in Brook's setting all the horror, pain, and humiliation of his punishment is put center stage. This is one of if not the best Shakespeare adaptations I have ever seen.
Review of King Lear
