Page 72 - King Lear: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

S T A G E - H I S T O R Y lxvii

had previously played the part at the Westminster
Theatre in 1934, and subsequently figured in it in Hugh
Hunt's 1947 revival at the Embassy Theatre, and in the
Old Vic's in 1952 at the end of its London run in which
Stephen Murray was the King and Daphne Slater
Cordelia. In the War years Donald Wolfit, who had
taken Kent earlier in Stratford, played Lear during his
autumn tour in 1942, Nugent Monck producing; and
then each year in London, 1943-7 and 1949 1 at
different theatres, with Rosalind Iden as Cordelia. In
1953 at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, he played
the King with Sir Lewis Casson as Gloucester. In 1946,
from 14 September, Sir Laurence Olivier at the Old
Vic had Joyce Redman as Cordelia to his Lear, 2 with
Alec Guinness as the Fool, Pamela Brown as Goneril,
and Margaret Leighton as Regan. From 3 March 1952
the Old Vic once more staged the play, Hugh Hunt
producing—Stephen Murray and Daphne Slater as
Lear and Cordelia, Leo McKern as the Fool; and in.
February 1958 in its plan of producing all the plays in
the Folio in a period of five years presented it again,
under Douglas Seale's direction, with Paul Rogers as
Lear, Rosemary Webster as Cordelia, and Paul Dane-
man as the Fool. In 1955 the Stratford Memorial
Theatre Company under George Devine toured in
Britain and on the Continent ending up at Stratford in
December. John Gielgud played Lear throughout,
with Peggy Ashcroft, Claire Bloom and Mary Watson
as his successive Cordelias.
The first revival at Stratford itself was in 1883 on the
Birthday, when William Creswick was the king. After
1
See Introduction, p. Iv supra.
* On Olivier's Lear, see Four Lears, by Charles Land-
stone in Shakespeare Survey, 1 (1948), 98-102. He com-
pares Olivier's with three other Lears of 1946—7—Devlin's,
Philip Morant's, and Sofaer's.