Peter Brook Production (1 Viewer)

[alexialight]

I'm confused. My teacher said that it was based on a nihilistic reading, however i've been reading notes and most of them say that it focussed on King Lear as being an absurdist drama/tragedy of the grotesque. I was wondering if they were the same thing?... and if not which one is it?

 

[malkin86]

it's sort of a mix of both - as a rule of thumb, the parts where it's dead depressing are nihilistic, and the parts where it's really wierd/funny/gross are the second.

 

[Horsegal98]

Brooks

My teacher said it was an existentialist reading, not a nihilistic one.

 

[silvermoon]

whilst absurdism and nihilism are two different things, if one is present in a king lear production, the other usually is. Absurdism is related to comedy of the grotesque, nihilism revolves around the idea that there is no ultimate meaning in anything - thus it can be argued that in Brook's production Lear falling off the stage at the end is a nihilistic approach (in death he is removed from any meaning he might have hoped his life to have had, therefore all his suffering becomes meaningless. challenges the christian reading of redemption in death)

 

[Codename_Alpha]

Important

If it's the 1970's version its existentialist (see J. Kott) and it is related to that we are alone in the world and nothing really matters in the scheme of things. We are alone in the universe and this is illustrated by the simple props (rusted), the harsh environment, sparse settings and the film being in black and white