Is an awesome experience. McKellen is The man for the job. I was pleased as punch to see that he could carry Cordelia at the end, as required by the text and how he played with the 5 "nevers", which are so wretchedly hard to pull off. Of course, for such an old pro, I expected every line said by him to be almost pitch perfect and he did not disappoint. For people without the gift, fitness and courage to act, witnessing the simulation of emotions we would not want to confront or think about is quite awe-inspiring. I admire good actors immensely--there are very few who can be properly called actors, who can suspend our disbelief, in the classical sense.
Of course, a great actor needs a great supporting cast as well and everything ran together like a well-oiled machine. a lot of hard work went into being so "pro"...
Trevor Nunn has a certain style. he likes a dumb show at the start: that start of both King Lear and Macbeth (both dir. by Nunn) have dumb shows....
there were some VJC students there and the place was packed with theatre folk: i saw 2 of the 3 Dimsum Dollies there--Pam Oei and Emma Yong and I won't be surprised if Selena Tan was there as well. A sprinkling of newscasters as well. What gave me the extra kick was comparing the Lear performance with the Seagull, seeing as Goneril is also played by the same actress as Arkadina, and so on.
