In Marseille, Jacques Weber is the fallen patriarch of Shakespeare’s “King Lear”
King Lear has the wind in its sails. Two renowned actors are currently performing this masterful role, Denis Podalydès at the Comédie-Française and Jacques Weber at the National Theater of Marseilles. Marseille is hosting Shakespeare’s famous family tragedy until October 21, 2022.
Play the King Lear is the dream of every theater actor. Jacques Weber takes on this role for the first time. At 73, he brilliantly portrays the aging monarch of William Shakespeare, fallen and destitute. King Lear has decided to leave his throne. He announces that he wants to share power between his three daughters but the latter must declare their affection for him. Which the youngest, sweet Cordelia, refuses. An affront that the monarch does not support, especially since she is his favorite. He disinherits her and sinks into unreason and loneliness.
On stage, Jacques Weber interprets for three hours, with panache, this character who requires a real physical and mental commitment. “It crosses me through and through” admits the actor. If for Jacques Weber playing King Lear is a first, Georges Lavaudant is a regular at this emblematic play. In fifty years of career, this is his third theatrical adaptation. A new challenge that he wanted to share with Jacques Weber. “King Lear is both a capricious child and a senile old man. Back and forth that Jacques manages to do on stage. He is having fun like a child and, three minutes later, he has the weight of the years on him. It’s a mass, a cyclops” explains the director amazed.
After Marseille, King Lear is continuing his 2022 tour. He will be at the Domaine d’O in Montpellier (from October 27 to 29), at the TNP in Villeurbanne (from November 9 to 18), at MC2 in Grenoble (from November 23 to 25 ), at the Théatre Edwige Feuillère in Vesoul (December 2), at the Cultural Center of Uccle in Belgium (from December 9 to 10) and at the Théâtre des Louvrais in Cergy Pontoise (from December 14 to 16).