Christopher Lloyd goes FULL Shakespearean breakdown and it's absolutely unhinged.
The once powerful King Lear chooses to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, and so begins one of Shakespeare’s most moving tragedies. At the crucial point of relinquishing his realm, Lear demands to know which of his daughters loves him the most. His ambitious older daughters answer with false praise and lavish flattery, however his youngest daughter, who does truly love him, answers with honesty. Wildly unsatisfied with her response, Lear’s rage sets in motion catastrophic consequences. Ultimately stripped of his privilege and its trappings, Lear must reckon with his own humanity.
Acting
Lloyd's descent from monarch to broken man is devastating.
Direction
Ricciardi's intimate staging strips away royal grandeur.
Director
Nicole Ricciardi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This 2021 film adapts Ricciardi's 2019 stage production, shot during pandemic constraints that paradoxically intensify the claustrophobia of Lear's collapse.
Lloyd, 82 during filming, channels his own mortality into Lear's—making the storm scene feel less like acting and more like exorcism.
US
