[An] illuminating survey of modern approaches to the play in performance ... [providing] succinct accounts of nearly 50 performances over the last half-century.

The Guardian

There are about 40 living actors who've tackled the role. Read this book, all ye students, and find out as much as you can about how it's been done in the recent past.

The Stage

A superb survey by Jonathan Croall of modern Lears (from Gielgud onwards).

The Telegraph

[Performing King Lear] contains detailed critical and personal accounts of nearly 60 productions, some successful, some not ... Croall draws on published memoirs and frequently rueful interviews conducted with actors and directors for this project, to give the reader some sense of what the Lear experience is like from within. Chapters devoted to the exertions of Gielgud, Charles Laughton and an ill-fated production starring Nigel Hawthorne make for compelling reading.

The Sydney Morning Herald

[E]xemplary ... King Lear is for me, and for many Shakespeareans, the Mount Everest of the Shakespearean canon, and Jonathan Croall's excellently helpful and insightful book enables us to enjoy a broad perspective from the top of the summit.

Around the Globe

[Croall] has staked a convincing claim to being Britain's leading theatrical commentator and biographer ... [and i]n this latest book, he makes a valuable addition to theatre history ... So much in this collection, on matters large and small, is stimulating to read that it seems invidious to single out any passages ... Croall should be encouraged – urged – to work his way through the other great roles in the Shakespearean canon.

Inside Story