The Tragedy of King Lear

'Only Lois Potter is capable of writing an introduction like this: she combines her vast experience of performance history with her unparalleled ability to read plays dramaturgically. As a result the introduction is as penetratingly astute on theme and structure as it is stimulating and eye-opening about theatre. No mere performance history, the introduction uses moments from production choices across the centuries to illustrate precise critical points, from the play's tragic crises to its general tone, from individual character to political atmosphere. Using her encyclopaedic knowledge of drama in performance, Lois Potter provides a brilliant hands-on guide to the play and an effortless introduction to theatre history.' Professor Laurie Maguire, University of Oxford
'Lois Potter combines her unparalleled knowledge of Shakespeare in theatrical performance and her scrupulously scholarly attention to detail in the NCS King Lear. Her new introduction provides up-to-the-minute accounts of the play in performance while also offering a clear historical perspective. Potter describes the way productions of King Lear have changed over the course of the centuries and especially how current efforts to create more diverse theatrical casts have valuably added further dimension to the key issues of the play. Invaluably too, she provides an account of recent developments both critical, imaginative, and political, including eco-criticism and feminist criticism, re-writings of Shakespeare, as well as Lear in the global context. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the play.' Dympna C. Callaghan, University Professor and William L. Safire Professor in Modern Letters, Syracuse University
'The updated New Cambridge critical edition of The Tragedy of King Lear provides a sensitive analysis of the afterlife of the play in a brand-new Introduction written by Lois Potter. There is … plenty in this Introduction to inspire new work on Lear … Potter's Introduction brings the edition and the play into the twenty-first century, and Gibbons' preface to Halio's 'Textual Analysis' helps to translate an edition ideal for graduate students and scholars of the play into an edition that will also appeal to readers approaching textual criticism for the first time.' Emma Depledge, Shakespeare Survey