I've had the good fortune of seeing some excellent performances of King Lear over the years, but the best was the most recent: the National Theatre Live production from the Donmar theater in London starring the great Derek Jacobi, which I saw on Thursday. And I must admit that it was the first time that I had seen a live broadcast of a play from another location in a movie theater, though I know that they've become very popular. And it certainly won't be the last. Nearly all the excitement felt in attending an in-person performance was there. In fact, I was surprised.

Of course, it helped that the production was superb: it emphasized the action in the story through swift pacing and intense, physically active performances. I'm going to write another post on it this week, at which point I'll go into a little more detail, but for today, I just want to discuss the astonishing performance given by Jacobi in the title role. Even by his standards, it's a tour de force. When I think of him, the first things that come to mind are his great performances in the BBC Richard II, the BBC Hamlet, and Branagh's Henry V. But this performance displayed abilities that I hadn't seen from him before, largely due to the performance's aforementioned physicality. Not only was he at home in it, he seemed to be leading the way. Apparently, this production may be coming to Broadway (after a short tour of England, if I'm not mistaken): If you have any chance of seeing it, do so. It's the greatest version I've seen of the world's greatest play.