Olivier's King LearWithout doubt the Lear of the century, this performance surpasses the skill of the critics to praise it; its all-star cast and crew have won every award that exists for performance and production. More important, the production makes a taut, compressed, and difficult play into a work that reaches out to modern audiences in its grip on the elemental human emotions—emotions common to ancient Celts and modern Americans, rowdy Elizabethan playgoers and today's Shakespearean scholars. (2 hours 40 minutes)