I'm Bill Moyers. It's good to have your ear.

John Lithgow and King Lear.

When we talk about Lear where it fits in our time, we are in a very strange moment.

I look around and I, you know, 50% of the big budget entertainment

you're seeing these days is dystopian. This is the era of hunger games and blasted landscapes

and walking dead. The zombie is the new sort of archetype of our times. I mean, how horrific is that?

And somehow or other, we've internalized that. We've made that our entertainment.

Welcome to you and welcome to my guest, King Lear. King Lear, that is, as portrayed by the actor John Lithgow,

who grew the beard for the role and has been frightening our neighbors here in New York City

merely by walking down the street at Twilight's last gleaming, headed to Central Park,

where under the stars he storms and stalks and strides the stage

as Shakespeare's aging, raging, old tyrant, descending into dementia at war with time,

his daughters, and himself. There is no more difficult role in the theater and no play

more relevant to the moment anytime and anywhere is performed.

With all the carnage and violence around us in the world, King Lear mirrors the folly of reckless

leadership, the arrogance of power, and the depth of human anguish.

Blow winds and crack to your cheeks.

Rage!

Blow you, cataracts and hurricanesos.

Spout!

Till you have drenched our steeples.

Drown the cocks, you.

...