King Lear

Original poster for King Lear

David Gardner

Link to Database
"The 1961-62 Eskimo Adaptation of King Lear." Essay by David Gardner written for CASP, July 2003.

Included here is a small sampling of the costume designs created by Herbert Whittaker for David Gardner’s ‘Eskimo Lear.’ As Gardner describes in the essay he wrote for CASP, he and Whittaker “haunted The Royal Ontario Museum together” for weeks while designing the production.

Costume designs for Goneril, Regan and Cordelia

Costume designs for King Lear and the Fool

Herbert Whittaker’s set design
Because the production toured Canada and the United States
extensively, the set was compact for traveling and adaptable to a
variety of venues. The sloping triangular forms served as ice blocks
and Lear’s throne, and were folded for transport.

This cast photograph shows how the costume and set designs
were realized in the production. For a complete cast list, see
CASP’s database entry.

Link to Database
"The 1961-62 Eskimo Adaptation of King Lear." Essay by David Gardner written for CASP, July 2003.

Gardner, David. "Canada's Eskimo 'Lear'." Theatre Research in Canada 7.1 (Spring 1986).

For a discussion of indigenous culture in relation to Shakespeare and settler culture, visit CASP's holdings on Warren Graves's 1975 adaptation Chief Shaking Spear Rides Again, or The Taming of the Sioux.

CASP gratefully acknowledges David Gardner's help in collecting and presenting these rare materials.