THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING LEAR AND HIS THREE DAUGHTERS Comes to Belvoir
Performances run from 15th November 2025 to 4th January 2026.
As the finale to their 2025 season, Belvoir will bring the house down with Shakespeare’s greatest play King Lear, starring multi-award-winning stage and screen legend Colin Friels, from 15th November 2025 to 4th January 2026.
Led by Eamon Flack, Belvoir’s Artistic Director, and featuring an all-star cast of thirteen, including Friels’ real-life daughter Charlotte Friels (ABC’s Plum, Ensemble Theatre’s Colder Than Here), Shakespeare’s tragic tale is a profoundly moving exploration of the trappings of privilege, education and civilisation, and the deficits of the human condition.
It’s time to retire. Lear has a plan – he’ll divide the kingdom between his three daughters, they’ll work in harmony with each other, he’ll live with them, there will be a seamless transition of power, and all will be well.
The universe doesn’t work that way.
Director Eamon Flack said, “Colin’s been building to this role for years, and in an age when sclerotic old orders threaten to take the world down with them, it’s time Belvoir had a go at this astonishing play. Every page explodes with possibility. We’ve used a version of one of its original titles, which gives you a sense of the play’s real scope of interest. Colin will be a fascinating and potent Lear – this will be unforgettable”.
The cast also features Ahunim Abebe (STC’s Circle Mirror Transformation), Peter Carroll (Seymour Centre’s The Player Kings), Tom Conroy (Holding the Man), James Fraser (Sydney Theatre Company’s Sweat), Raj Labade (Never Closer, Amazon’s The Office Australia), Brandon McClelland (Scenes from the Climate Era), Sukhbir Singh Walia (Sunny) (Counting and Cracking), Alison Whyte (Faith Healer, GWB Entertainment’s A Christmas Carol), Charles Wu (Miss Peony), and Jana Zvedeniuk (The Master & Margarita), with set design by Bob Cousins (August: Osage County) and original composition by Steve Francis (Counting and Cracking) and on-stage musician Arjuanan Puveendran (The Jungle and The Sea).
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