Word: laughtons
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...thing was sure from the moment the curtain rose: this King Lear was not the lean, commanding character of Shakespearean tradition. Brought to the stage of Britain's Stratford Memorial Theater by Cinemactor Charles (Mutiny on the Bounty) Laughton last week, King Lear was an eye-rolling, tongue-lolling, hand-scrabbling, dirty old man. Above a billowing green gown that looked like a collapsed circus tent (but still could not hide the hefty Laughton paunch), the famed suet-pudding face was almost obscured by a wild halo of home-grown white whiskers and an unkempt shoulder-length mane...
...shock soon gave way to pleased surprise. As the performance unfolded, Laughton's Lear never forgot that his was a family tragedy; even the first-act simpering made sense, for it showed a fool-father truly stupid enough to be gulled by his ugly daughters, Regan and Goneril. Then, as the king wandered mad through the storm, deserted by his daughters, the performance departed the norm again. Laughton's king was strangely calm and compelling. Rarely was he moved to the familiar, passion-torn shrieks of other Lears. His fantastic monologues with himself sounded almost conversational...
Later in the Laughton version, Lear's return to reason was a slow and convincing process. As the madness ebbed, the head stopped bobbing, the eyes grew steady, the back straightened. Every gesture showed a man returning to reality, to learning, understanding, forgiveness, until he is himself forgiven...
...Maurier originated the roles of Peter Pan and Captain Hook, some of the greatest English-speaking actors have been charmed in taking to the piano wire or donning an iron claw, including Eva LeGallienne, Joan Greenwood, Jean Arthur, and Mary Martin in the title role; and Alastair Sim, Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, and Cyril Ritchard as the evil pirate Captain...
...less than adequate. Jerome Kilty gives a good greasy performance in the double role of the pseudo-romantic brigand Mendoza and "that strange monster called a devil." If Mr. Kilty's Devil is put in the shade by the definitive performance of Charles Laughton, it still has excellences...