A recording of the production from the courtyard of the Supreme Purkrab of Prague Castle starring Jan Tříská. Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear is a timeless tale of love, hate, betrayal, greed and lust for power. At the end of his life, the King decides to divide the kingdom between his three daughters based on their speeches about how much they love him. In his blindness, he disinherits and exiles the most honest and beloved Cordelia. He hands over all his power to his other two daughters and only in time does he discover what he has done and gradually slips into madness.

Fathom Events and BY Experience bring the Stratford Festival’s critically acclaimed performance of King Lear to cinemas for a memorable one-night event. An aging monarch resolves to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, with consequences he little expects. His reason shattered in the storm of violent emotion that ensues, with his very life hanging in the balance, Lear loses everything that has defined him as a king – and thereby discovers the essence of his own humanity.

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, King Lear sees two ageing fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery, as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with bitter ends.

King Lear, old and weary, divides his kingdom among his daughters, placing great weight on their declarations of love for him. However, when Cordelia, the youngest and most honest, refuses to flatter the old man in exchange for his favour, he banishes her and seeks support from his remaining daughters. Goneril and Regan, however, harbour no love for him and instead conspire to seize all his power. In a parallel, Lear’s loyal courtier Gloucester favours his illegitimate son Edmund after being deceived by lies about his faithful son Edgar. Tragically, both ill-fated fathers are consumed by madness and experience immense suffering.

An aging king splits up his kingdom for his three daughters to govern, but is misled about their affections and driven into exile.

An aging king splits up his kingdom for his three daughters to govern, but is misled about their affections and driven into exile.

The film starts with the veteran thespian Harish Mishra, he is gravely ill. The punishments of a film shoot have left the old man in a coma. His co-star, Shabnam, is wracked with worry, but their director, Siddharth, keeps strangely distant and refuses to visit his ailing star. In flashbacks, their story emerges.