Sam Mendes’ adaption of King Lear takes a fatalistic approach to the tale of a devolving king, lessening the burden of tragedy that accompanies the play. The absurdity of King Lear throughout the performance within his actions and responses to other characters demonstrates this individual’s inability to cope with the prospect of growing old or dying, both of which represent actions out of his control. Mendes pairs this Lear with an unassuming Edgar, who becomes an embodiment of the wheel of fortune with the emphasis of time imagery and rhetoric that accompanies his character. As Lear succumbs to his fate at the end of the play and Edgar delivers the following epilogue, Mendes portrays the inescapable cycle of life. With his production of King Lear, Sam Mendes lessens the tragedy within the play by portraying the events as the inescapable fate that accompanies the end of life.
Sam Mendes creates an absurd Lear within the first scene of the performance, in which the royal family discusses the future of the kingdom, in order to show Lear’s inability to cope with the unknown nature of the future. Mendes begins the scene with a commanding Lear, making him appear self-assured. As Lear enters to deliver his plan for the future at the start of the scene he walks upright with his shoulders back and moves to a purple chair center stage that has its back to the audience. While all of the other characters remain grouped together at a single table facing the audience, Lear commands over them with his singular position on stage. By not facing the audience and residing in front of the other characters, he appears much like a conductor in control over the situation. Mendes adds to the in control nature of Lear by having all of the characters remain standing until Lear motions for them to sit. He also places them into a boardroom-like setting with all of the others perched at a conference table. Lear’s purple chair also nods to the power he holds as a royal figure.
Mendes continues Lear’s in control attitude until Cordelia ruins his plans for the future of the kingdom, after which he breaks into a frenzy, to portray Lear’s discomfort with fate. After Cordelia decrees “Nothing, my lord” in response to his prodding for her declaration of love, Simmon Russell Beale begins screaming his lines. Instead of appearing hurt and somewhat understanding by giving her another opportunity to speak, Beale yells in Cordelia’s face during the line “How? Nothing will come of nothing try again.” This delivery makes Lear appear more irrational and ridiculously angry. Beale continues the absurdity of Lear’s anger by having him rant around the stage during his next few lines, knocking over chairs and tables along the way. Beale pauses halfway through his loss of control when he exclaims,
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity, and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee from this for ever (1.1.114-117)
Pausing at this proclamation makes it appear more radical and absurd in response to the simplicity of Cordelia’s rejection, revealing the true reasons behind his breakdown. Beale physically shoves a chair halfway through this portion of the speech at the line beginning with “and” to add to this insane feel. When Lear brings out Cordelia’s suitors he maniacally laughs while insulting his daughter both to the men and to her directly. During this part of the scene Lear laughs while physically pushing his daughter away, saying, “Go to, go to. Better thou/Hadst not been born than not t’ have pleased me better (1.1.242-243). This brutal banishment of Cordelia makes Lear appear mad in response to the uncertainty she causes within his future plans. Sam Mendes begins act one with a confident and in control Lear, when his future becomes less certain, Mendez devolves Lear into an extreme frenzy to show his inability to accept the uncertainty of life.
Mendes accompanies Lear’s insecurity with his future with a character meant to represent fate to demonstrate the impossibility of escaping the ultimate fate that accompanies the end of life. When Mendes first introduces Edgar, he portrays an extremely unassuming character. Edgar appears in baggy sweatpants and a t-shirt, which feels even less impressive as opposed to his brother’s suit within the same scene. Edgar also walks in smoking with a drink in hand and stutters throughout his first lines. This unassuming and pathetic character transforms after his fate changes within the play, highlighting his character’s relationship with fate. The next time Edgar enters the stage occurs during a scene in which Kent discusses fate and fortune. Kent decrees, “Fortune, good night. Smile once more. Turn thy wheel” (2.2.167). While Edgar enters and throughout his monologue that follows, the stage continues revolving to mirror these words of fate. This scene marks the first in which Mendes has the stage continuously revolve. The pathways on the stage take the form of clock hands during this continued rotation to mark the progression of time and the “turning wheel of fortune” that Kent mentions.
Within his first monologue Edgar also demonstrates his embodiment of fate with the sharp change in his character. Throughout this monologue Edgar remains upright and speaks directly to the audience, an action his previous self does not do. Tom Brooke also casts his arms out into the air as if throwing off his role as Edgar when he decrees, “That’s something yet. Edgar I nothing am” (2.3.22). Mendes also demonstrates how Edgar represents fate by having him physically represent the wheel of fortune throughout other scenes within the production and by changing the way in which he defeats his brother Edmund at the end of the play. During the heath scene and when Edgar and Gloucester encounter Lear in the fields, Tom Brook moves near Lear and sticks out one of his arms. He points the outreached arm at Lear, mimicking the “clock hands” that make up the stage and the turning wheel of fate. Edgar physically becomes the fate that follows Lear through his denial of his future.
The other way that Mendes has Edgar represent fate occurs as he murders Edmund. Mendes completely cuts the lines in which Edgar challenges Edmund and the two brothers duel. In the text Edgar directly challenges Edmund beginning with “Draw thy sword/That if my speech offend a noble heart/Thy arm may do thee justice/Here is mine” (5.3.135-137). In the performance Edgar announces his presence and without a word rightfully stabs Edmund in the ribs. Edmund does nothing in protest as if accepting that Edgar’s action represents a fate he must accept.
After Lear dies within the play, succumbing to the very fate that terrifies him at the start of King Lear, Edgar delivers the final lines of the play. The final relationship between Lear and fate becomes one of dismal acceptance for the audience. Edgar decrees,
The weight of this sad time we must obey.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most. We that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long. (5.3.342-345).
Mendes has Edgar deliver these lines simply and slowly at center stage alone. The simplicity of the actor’s delivery of these final lines, along with Edgar’s deep tie to fortune makes the ending feel inevitable. Edgar doesn’t display any extreme emotions as if to suggest that although King Lear represents a tragic tale, it simply represents an overall acceptance of tragedy in life. Ultimately Mendes’ adaption of King Lear becomes an unsympathetic character accepting the future that he tries to defy, making his death and the other’s death less of an ultimate tragedy and more of simple acceptable fact.