National Theatre Live: Encore

Cinema: King Lear

by William Shakespeare

Recorded live on London’s West End, Ian McKellen’s breathtaking King Lear returns to cinemas. Jonathan Munby directs this contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s tender, violent, moving and shocking play.

Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, King Lear sees two ageing fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery, as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with bitter ends.