William R. Rampone, Jr., and Eric S. Mallin, eds, Global King Lear: Crisis, Performance, Adaptation1

This is a review of an important collection of essays on theatre and film adaptations, appropriations, and re-writings of William Shakespeare’s King Lear. Particular attention is paid to the issue of globality as opposed to universality, a concern common to all the contributions and a problem that benefits greatly from their compared analysis. The short summaries of each essay are focussed on the issues that give the title to the three parts into which the book is divided – “social and ethical responsibilities”, “ageing, death and citizenship”, “Lear’s theatres and metatheatricality” – and constitute the individual innovations brought about in the King Lear adaptations presented by the authors of the volume. KEYWORDS: King Lear; William Shakespeare; globality; adaptation; appropriation