Editing Michael Hordern (section)

====''King Lear''====

Miller and Hordern's collaboration continued into 1969 with ''[[King Lear]]'' at the [[Nottingham Playhouse]]. Hordern immediately accepted the title role but later said that it was a character he never much cared to play.<ref>Hordern, p. 138.</ref> Writing about Miller in his autobiography, Hordern stated: "It was one of the most exhilarating and funny experiences I have had in the theatre."<ref>Hordern, pp. 138–139.</ref> Miller recruited [[Frank Middlemass]] to play the [[Shakespearean fool|fool]],<ref>Croall, p. 64.</ref> but contrary to tradition, Miller made the character an intimate of Lear's as opposed to a servant, something which Shakespearean purists found difficult to accept.<ref name="HORDERN139">Hordern, p. 139.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Miller saw Lear and the Fool as equals, despite the fact that Lear was born in a palace and the Fool in a stable. Miller thought of no reason why the two should not be closer as the two characters had "known each other for years".<ref name="HORDERN139" />|group= n}} Miller decided to further defy convention by concentrating on the relationships between the characters rather than adding detail to scenery and costume; he was eager not to use lavish sets and lighting for the fear of detracting from the characterisations and the sentimentality of the storyline. As such, the sets were bleak and the costumes more so; it was a style that was also used when the play was televised by the BBC later that decade.<ref name="HORDERN139" />

When ''King Lear'' played at the Old Vic in 1970, reviews were mixed; J.W. Lambert thought that the "grey sets" and Hordern's "grizzled" costume were how Shakespeare would have intended them to be,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Zz-Cb8ZfnwoC&dq=michael+Hordern+King+Lear&pg=PA86 "Plays in Performance"], ''Drama'' (Summer, 1970), pp. 27–31; Quoted in Wells, p. 86.</ref> while Eric Shorter thought otherwise, stating "I still do not understand those costumes."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Zz-Cb8ZfnwoC&dq=michael+Hordern+King+Lear&pg=PA86 "Plays in Performance"], ''Drama'' (Spring, 1970), pp. 15–28; Quoted in Wells, p. 86.</ref> Of the performance, the dramatist and critic [[Martin Esslin]] called Hordern's portrayal "a magnificent creation"<ref name="QUOTE141">Quote from Martin Esslin in February 1969; Hordern, p. 141.</ref><ref name="CROALL67">Croall, 67.</ref> before going on to say: "Hordern's timing of the silences from which snatches of demented wisdom emerge is masterly and illuminates the subterranean processes of his derangement."<ref name="QUOTE141" /> Writing for ''The Times'' later that year, the theatre critic [[Irving Wardle]] described Hordern's Lear as a "sharp, peremptory pedant; more a law-giver than a soldier, and (as justice is an old man's profession) still in the prime of his life".<ref>Quote from Irving Wardle in November 1969; Hordern, p. 140.</ref> Hordern played Lear once more that decade, in 1975, which was televised by the BBC<ref name="CROALL67" /> for their series ''[[Play of the Month]]''.<ref>Willis, p. 127.</ref>