Kirsty Bushell

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.

Cameras exclusively capture the Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche playing the title role in Sophocles's tale of family loyalty, courage and tragedy. The Barbican's visionary new English language translation by TS Eliot Prize-winning poet and classicist Anne Carson is directed by renowned Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove.

Young Richard of Gloucester uses the chaos of the Wars of the Roses to begin his unscrupulous climb to power in this classic Shakespearean history of a king in the throes of jealousy and murder. Despite being manifestly unfit to govern, he overcomes each obstacle in his way to seize the crown, as King Richard III. But as those around him turn against him, and as his plans begin to unravel, where else can he turn as the Lancastrian opposition returns to drag the country into battle once more and put an end to Richard’s tyrannical rule. Richard III is a savagely comic analysis of the exercise of power, reminding us of the dangers of tyranny and our duty not to let it go unchecked.

Ian has achieved such a high level of British citizenship that he is to be transformed into a swan. We follow Ian and his wife Donna in their preparations for this transformation.