King Lear Old Vic Glenda Jackson

Disappointing news.  Can't make 1pm on the day I'm in London so have had to cancel my booking.

Fine if you've got a cosy Stratford B&B booked a ten minute walk from the theatre, not so fine if it's in London and you've got to get back to Marylebone for your last train 'cos the night tube hasn't made it as far as zone 9 yet.

Also that sounds like a horrendous running time for Antony & Cleopatra too. If a director can't keep the pace up, then you're going to lose audiences for more reasons than just "it's a bit long and I have a dainty bottom". I have an extremely undainty bottom, but I get bored by self-indulgent running times just like anyone else.

You're going to have to explain how "keeping the pace up" isn't the same thing as "serving the play". A play is telling a story to an audience - some arrogant practitioners may refuse to believe this, but the audience are a very important part of theatre. Letting the pace drop will bore people. It will make the story difficult to follow. It will render conversations nonsensical. A glacially-paced play may be satisfying for the director to explore all their ideas, or for the actors to have plenty of time to show off in, but it's incredibly self-indulgent and doesn't "serve the play" anything like as much as taking it back to the most basic "let's tell a story" idea that underpins all theatre.

Running time turns out to be subjective, some one hour halfs are painfully tedious but some of two hours fly by. I recall one of the Nicholas Nickelby plays was 2hrs both before and after the interval. Trev's peerless Othello was over 4hrs. Lears of over 3.5 hrs are common.

Apparently, they expected it to be done "at pace". But Glenda Jackson's characters think before they speak, so the Old Vic has now decided to allow her the usual time for King Lear.

Yes, Lear is a long play unless cuts are made. I am amazed they did not realise this from the beginning! Expect plenty of latecomers! Great for the "Bad Behaviour" thread!

There are only two 2 show days in the whole run, 19th and 23rd November. At least that part of the scheduling they paid attention to.

Also Deborah Warner is an uncompromising director, not inclined to "make it more accessible" with big cuts - I think a 3:30 running time for Lear is still cut though, probably 3:45 for the full text. I saw Warner's last King Lear which was with Brian Cox, it wasn't her best work so that is presumably why she's having another go

I seem to recall she'd done one before with Kick theatre too. I enjoyed the Cox one, though i seem to recall Cox putting a Red Nose Day red nose on the dead Cornelia's nose, which struck me as a terrible directorial decision.  McKellen was Kent, of course, very impressive; and it was presumably a very fine cast, though I've seen so many I can never remember who were Goneril and Regan in any given production.  Same is true with Polonius and Claudius. 

I know it's frightfully childish of me but I do always have to stifle a snigger when someone mentions Goneril in 'Lear'.

"Oh Your Majesty, I don't know where your daughter is. She was out with the troops last night and I think she's gone and caught herself a particularly itchy case of goneril."

That would have given people some time to eat something beforehand. Very long operas start early (say at 5.00pm) and have a 50 minute interval (giving the performers a break and everyone time for a snack) before concluding around 11.00. But that wouldn't work for most drama because such a long interval would seriously disrupt the play, and too few people would be free to show up for a 5.00pm start.

A 7.00 start is awkwardly early for many people, and definitely too early for others to be able to commit to attending. With a long performance, you can't suit everyone!