Who would want to see a mad old man naked? Even if the man happens to be Sir Ian McKellen of heavyweight reputation from the world-renowned Royal Shakespeare Company. Well, it may pique your interest to know that McKellen plays the part of Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings” and the powerful mutant Magneto in the X-Men series. The 68-years old actor is nothing short of superb Shakespeare’s King Lear. His vivacity, depth and emotionally-charged performance will blow your senses away and make you fall in love with Shakespeare. Hollywood-saturated and Shakespeare skeptical as you may be.
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Directed by Trevor Nunn, Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) artistic director and supported by a sterling cast from the world of theatre, Shakespeare’s King Lear is vintage wine reopened for a special treat. King Lear has everything for an entertaining dramatic performance macabre plucking out of someone’s eyes, a king becomes mad, a daughter disowned, poisoning of a sister, love, loyalty, humour and exposed genitalia. A naked scene in Shakespeare? That’s hot.

Well, in a scene in the middle of the play, the near-insane King Lear, banished by his daughters, spoke to his clothes with wild abandon: “Off, off you lendings! Come unbutton here!” Audiences elsewhere will see naked buttocks and penis. But the audience in Singapore, where King Lear had been staged, only saw boxer shorts, courtesy of the government’s no-nudity take to protect vulnerable minds which had come to watch the play.

McKellen was quite miffed about it and made up for the ban to the Singaporean audience by injecting adult humour in another scene. When questioned by the blind Earl of Gloucester, “Is’t not the King?” McKellen replied, “Ay, every inch a king” and made a wave down under to slow what he meant. The not so innocent crowd roared with laughter.

RSC’s King Lear is scheduled to be staged in Australia, New Zealand, US and UK. To catch a glimpse of Shakespeare’s genius, RSC’s superb effort or McKellen’s genitalia, make sure you don’t miss this Shakespearean drama.

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