History Theatre / KingLear

The play has been adapted several times for the screen, but no adaptation is more famous than the one that [[RecycledINSPACE moves it to Japan]], [[GenderFlip changes the daughters into sons]], and adds a whole bunch of other stuff, ''Film/{{Ran}}''. See also ''Series/ShakespeareUnwrapped'', an Irish {{Edutainment}} show that dramatizes the play with a YoungerAndHipper cast.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Subverted, as the Earl of Kent is disguised as a servant when he kicks Oswald around.

* AdaptedOut: Marganus and Cunedagius, Lear's grandsons by Goneril and Regan and their respective husbands.

* VillainHasAPoint:
** While Goneril and Regan are clearly nasty characters who abuse their father, it's hard ''not'' to agree with some of their complaints about Lear: he insists on a retinue of 100 knights to travel around with him, then goes to their castles (the idea being he'll live with Goneril for one month, then Regan for the next, then back to Goneril, and so on), spends his days hunting and feasting with the men, and then demands to be waited on hand and foot whenever he wants. They obviously go too far in banishing him fully, but contemporary audiences will likely understand that Lear refusing to budge even an inch and acting like the world's worst house guest would make ''anyone'' upset, let alone two Queens who are trying to run a kingdom.
** Lear's elder daughters, Cornwall, and Edmund are also technically correct in referring to Lear's followers (including Gloucester) as traitors for seeking out an alliance with a foreign army (France) against Britain.
** Edmund is also correct to say that arbitrary prejudice causes parents and society to look down on "bastard" children as base and less deserving of love than "legitimate" children. Edmund also expresses skepticism and astrology, soothsaying, etc in favor of claiming that men are the masters of their destiny.

* MirthToPower: The Fool, of course. His jokes and clowning often has a pretty scratching criticism of Lear and his conduct attached to them.

* AdaptedOut: Lear's grandsons by Goneril and Regan and their respective husbands.

%%%%* AdaptedOut: Lear's grandsons by Goneril and Regan and their husbands.

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Edmund uses his last breath to repeal his death sentence upon Cordelia. Naturally, it's too late.

* DragonAscendant: Oswald, after Cornwall's death in Act IV, who attempts to kill old Gloucester, only to meet his demise at the hands of Edgar, who is disguised as a rustic peasant.

** The Fool vanishes from the play after Act 3, Scene 6, and his whereabouts are never accounted for. Many speculate that the character probably was meant to have died and that the scene explicitly stating or depicting this was lost. His final line about "Going to bed at noon," has been interpreted as {{foreshadowing}} his demise. Another theory is that the Fool and Cordelia may have been depicted by the same actor in the original production, necessitating the disappearance of one when the other reenters the play. Some productions have Lear, while mad, accidentally killing him. Since he is a comic character, The Fool's disappearance may very well indicate the play's [[ShooOutTheClowns shift to the subsequent tragedies]] that befall Cornwall and his servant, Oswald, Gloucester, Goneril, Regan, Edmund, Cordelia, and Lear. A line in the fifth act from Lear says "my poor fool is hanged", but the "f" is lowercase - leading to doubt as to whether The Fool was hanged offscreen.

** Regan is able to inspire large amounts of cruelty in others, leading to Gloucester getting his eyes gouged out and Lear being driven out into the storm. She's outwitted by Goneril in the end, though

** Subverted. Since he was born out of wedlock, Edmund is Edgar's half-brother. However, this doesn't stop Edmund trying to do away with and discredit Edgar in the pursuit for his father's title. Edgar finishes Edmund off in the final act, the religious [[AnAesop Aesop]] being that the true child will always triumph over the bastard.

* AdaptedOut: Lear's grandsons by Goneril and Regan and their husbands.