Aging in the world of entertainment is portrayed in a variety of ways. In some cases it’s graceful and elegant; in others it’s manic and doddering. Shakespeare has dealt with this subject numerous times with vast reinterpretations in productions through the centuries. In this excerpt from Aging Thoughtfully: Conversations about Retirement, Wrinkles, Romance, and Regret, authors Martha C. Nussbaum and Saul Levmore look at the classic example of King Lear, and how different portrayals of this elderly character can be a reflection of how people see aging and infirmity in modern times.

Productions of King Lear these days are obsessively concerned with the theme of aging. Just as the postwar period saw an emphasis on empti­ness, loss of meaning, and utter devastation (in Peter Brook’s memorable production starring Paul Scofield, but also in countless others after that), so in our time it is the age theme that has become popular, and that may even account in part for the play’s recent surge in popularity. Productions follow the preoccupations of their intended audience. Today, many or even most audience members for a Shakespeare production are personally anx­ious about aging, are currently caring for an aging relative, or both. We should mention also the legions of long- lived excellent actors who want to play the role, and are not deterred by its extreme physical demands. Laurence Olivier (76 when he played the role), Ian McKellen (68), Stacy Keach (68), Christopher Plummer (72), Sam Waterston (71), John Lithgow (69), Frank Langella (76), Derek Jacobi (72), and, most recently, Glenda Jackson (80). We are clearly a long way from Shakespeare’s own Lear, Richard Burbage, who played the role at 39, and further yet from Gielgud, at 29. (Scofield, by the way, was only 40, but it didn’t matter, because that production did not emphasize aging.)

A masterpiece yields new insights when produced with a new empha­sis, and Lear is no exception. So I do not criticize directors for choosing to emphasize the theme of aging. And the play, in which Lear asks for expres­sions of love and then divides his kingdom between the two daughters (Goneril and Regan) who fawn on him and disinherits the one (Cordelia) who really loves him, investigates themes of dispossession, loss, and even­tual madness that Shakespeare does connect clearly with Lear’s advancing age. Still, there is something amiss with one common way this emphasis is realized: some directorial choices lead us away from the insights about aging that the play actually offers. Let’s start with a representative example.

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