Thursday, September 3, 2009 4:16 PM
King Lear-gate: What did Ignatieff see, and when did he see it?
Since the Stratford Shakespeare Festival hired a New York publicist a couple of years ago, we've seen a huge increase in coverage of the festival from American publications. But seeing the opening night of Macbeth pop up in the latest issue of the New Yorker (you'll have to buy the issue, but here's an abstract ) was nonetheless a bit of a surprise.
In a profile of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, Canadian expat Adam Gopnik followed the Canadian ex-expat to Stratford, Ontario. Ignatieff later revealed to the Goppers that: "Seeing William Hutt do King Lear [at Stratford] in 1964 was one of the three or four shaping experiences of my life; I don't think I've ever written a book without mentioning Lear."
Well, as you can imagine, that's the kind of thing a theatre critic likes to hear from an elected official. I mean, it was nice and all when Stephen Harper went to see Taylor Hicks in Grease at the National Arts Centre , but I doubt it was one of the three or four shaping experiences of his day.
There's only one problem with Ignatieff's story and that's that William Hutt didn't play King Lear at Stratford in 1964. John Colicos played King Lear at Stratford in 1964. Hutt didn't play Lear at Stratford until 1972.
So, Mr. Ignatieff, the Canadian public deserves to know: Did you get the Lear wrong or the year wrong?
I have an email in to the OLOcats and will let you know what response I get back.
