Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
King Lear
Act 1

Seeking to divide his kingdom among his three daughters and relieve himself of affairs of state, the elderly King Lear summons his children to declare their love for him. But when the ceremony does not unfold the way he intended, the true devision of his kingdom begins to unfold...

CAST
King Lear - Philip Donnelly
Regan - Kati Herbert
Goneril - Jo Emery
Cordelia - Hannah Rogers
Edmund - Luke Martin
Edgar - TJ Lea
Kent - Andrew Faber
Gloucester - Robert Aldington
Fool - David Ault
Albany - Alistair Sanderson
Oswald - Jacki Dann
King of France / Knight - Gareth Johnson
Burgundy - Stephen J Davies

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Music - Dream Cave, Kikoru & Kevin MacLeod

'King Lear' (Act 1)

Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
King Lear
Act 2

Having fled Goneril's house in a rage, Lear calls upon Regan in expectation of a kinder reception, only to find she and Cornwall have already taken measures to undermine him. Meanwhile, Edmund's plot to usurp Edgar gathers pace, and a storm approaches the kingdom...

CAST
King Lear - Philip Donnelly
Regan - Kati Herbert
Goneril - Jo Emery
Edmund - Luke Martin
Edgar - TJ Lea
Kent - Andrew Faber
Gloucester - Robert Aldington
Fool - David Ault
Cornwall - Andrew Shaw
Oswald - Jacki Dann

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Music - Dream Cave, Magnus Ringblom & Kikoru

'King Lear' (Act 2)

Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
King Lear
Act 3

A storm batters the kingdom. Lear and his last few allies seek refuge from the tempest, but the old king's wits are beginning to desert him. Meanwhile, Gloucester embarks on a dangerous mission to save the fallen monarch, but soon incurs the wrath of Regan and Cornwall...


CAST
King Lear - Philip Donnelly
Regan - Kati Herbert
Goneril - Jo Emery
Edmund - Luke Martin
Edgar / Servant 1 - TJ Lea
Kent - Andrew Faber
Gloucester / Servant 2 - Robert Aldington
Fool - David Ault
Cornwall - Andrew Shaw
Oswald - Jacki Dann
Servant 3 - Gareth Johnson

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Music - Dream Cave, Kevin MacLeod, Jon Bjork, Magnus Ringblom, Kikoru, Jakob Ahlbom

'King Lear' (Act 3)

Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
King Lear
Act 4

Whilst Edmund stirs up disharmony between Goneril and Regan, Cordelia returns to England in the hope of saving her father. Soon the fallen king is reunited with former allies on the coast, but war is approaching, and Lear's tempest is far from over...


CAST
King Lear - Philip Donnelly
Regan - Kati Herbert
Goneril - Jo Emery
Cordelia - Hannah Rogers
Edmund - Luke Martin
Edgar - TJ Lea
Kent - Andrew Faber
Gloucester - Robert Aldington
Albany - Alistair Sanderson
Oswald - Jacki Dann
Old Woman / Doctor / Gentlewoman - Mary Hall

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Music - Dream Cave, Kevin MacLeod, August Wilhelmsson, Magnus Ringblom, Johannes Bornlof

'King Lear' (Act 4)

Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
King Lear
Act 5

The French invasion has failed. Lear and Cordelia are held prisoner in the English camp, where Edmund's plans put them in even greater danger. As Edgar returns to face his brother in combat, the final reckoning for an old man's folly and a young man's ambition is about to be paid...


CAST
King Lear - Philip Donnelly
Regan - Kati Herbert
Goneril - Jo Emery
Cordelia - Hannah Rogers
Edmund - Luke Martin
Edgar - TJ Lea
Kent / Captain - Andrew Faber
Gloucester - Robert Aldington
Albany - Alistair Sanderson
Herald - Gareth Johnson
Messenger - Stephen J Davies

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Music - Dream Cave, Hannah Lindren & Rand Aldo

'King Lear' (Act 5)

Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Timon of Athens
Act 1

Political unrest is stirring in Athens between Alcibiades and the city's senators. In the court of Lady Timon, however, all troubles are ignored. Lords, ladies, artists and artisans grow bounteous from Timon's famed generosity, but others - within and without her house - fear where this lifestyle will lead her... 

CAST
Lady Timon - Amber Kendrick
Apemantia - Jo Pratt
Alcibiades - David Ault
Flavia - Mary Hall
Flaminius / Poet - Stephen J Davies
Servilia - Stephanie Hull
Lucilius / Cupid - TJ Lea
Lucullus - Andrew Faber
Sempronia - Sarah Jane Wellington
Lucia - Hannah Rogers
Ventidius / Painter - Robert Aldington
Merchant - Erika Sanderson
Jeweller - Andrew Richards

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Title Music - Etienne Roussel

'Timon Of Athens' (Act 1)

Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Timon of Athens
Act 3

The debtors calling for Lady Timon's money continue to plague her household, whilst Athens' senators grant Alcibiades an audience to discuss his grievances. Soon, the great and the good are summoned once again to Lady Timon's house, where a banquet awaits...

CAST
Lady Timon - Amber Kendrick
Alcibiades - David Ault
Flavia - Mary Hall
Flaminius - Stephen J Davies
Servilia - Stephanie Hull
Lucilius - TJ Lea
Lucullus - Andrew Faber
Sempronia - Sarah Jane Wellington
Lucia - Hannah Rogers
First Senator - Christine Garvey
Second Senator - Andrew Richards
Caphis - Robert Aldington
Varro - Erika Sanderson
Titus - Gareth Johnson

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Title Music - Etienne Roussel

'Timon Of Athens' (Act 3)

Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Timon of Athens
Act 4

Embittered and enraged by the actions of her fellow nobles, Lady Timon has denounced her former life and taken refuge in a cave by Athens' coast. However, more than one former acquaintance is set to return to her...

CAST
Lady Timon - Amber Kendrick
Apemantia - Jo Pratt
Alcibiades - David Ault
Flavia / Second Bandit - Mary Hall
Flaminius - Stephen J Davies
Servilia - Stephanie Hull
First Bandit - Andrew Faber
Timandra - Sarah Jane Wellington
Phrynia - Hannah Rogers

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Title Music - Etienne Roussel

'Timon Of Athens' (Act 4)

Sounds & Sweet Airs - The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Timon of Athens
Act 5

Athens stands on the brink of war. The senators embark on a mission to coast in the hope that the woman who once sat at the heart of the city's society can help broker peace. But Lady Timon is not who she once was...

CAST
Lady Timon - Amber Kendrick
Alcibiades - David Ault
Flavia - Mary Hall
First Senator - Christine Garvey
Second Senator - Andrew Richards
Poet - Stephen J Davies
Painter - Robert Aldington
Soldier - Gareth Johnson

CREW
Writer - William Shakespeare
Producer / Director - Dario Knight
Sound Engineer - Gareth Johnson
Title Music - Etienne Roussel

'Timon Of Athens' (Act 5)

Lear Act I Scene I [William Shakespeare cover]

Lear Act I Scene I part 1 [William Shakespeare cover]

Lear Act I Scene I part 2 [William Shakespeare cover]

Lear Act I Scene I part 3 [William Shakespeare cover]

Lear Act I Scene I part 4 [William Shakespeare cover]

Lear Act I Scene I part 5 [William Shakespeare cover]

Lear Act I Scene I part 6 [William Shakespeare cover]

Lear Act I Scene I part 7 [William Shakespeare cover]

How does Shakespeare’s King Lear resonate in a world facing climate catastrophe? Novelist Julia Armfield explores this question in Private Rites, a novel set in a near-future London reshaped by rising sea levels. Following three sisters grappling with their father’s death, Private Rites weaves together themes of inheritance, power, and familial wounds—echoing Shakespeare’s tragic monarch while carving out a distinctly modern, queer perspective.

Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea, discusses her fascination with disaster narratives, the inescapable dynamics of sibling relationships, and how Shakespeare’s work inspires her storytelling. From the storm in King Lear to the watery depths of her fiction, she reflects on how queerness, horror, and the climate crisis intersect in literature.

Julia Armfield is a fiction writer living in London with her wife and cat. Her work has been published in Granta, The White Review, and Best British Short Stories in 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award in 2018 and won the White Review Short Story Prize in 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize in 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize in 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under The Sea,  was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2022 and won the Polari Prize in 2023. Her second novel, Private Rites, was longlisted for the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize in 2024.

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published March 11, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Julia Armfield Reimagines King Lear in a Drowning World

Home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare materials. Advancing knowledge and the arts. Discover it all at www.folger.edu. Shakespeare turns up in the most interesting places—not just literature and the stage, but science and social history as well. Our "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast explores the fascinating and varied connections between Shakespeare, his works, and the world around us.

Welcome to the Unbound Theatre Podcast!

Here you’ll find the latest audio projects from award-winning storytelling company Unbound Theatre, presented by (and based at) Queens Park Arts Centre.

The podcast spans all manner of titles, including AudioVerse Award winner (Best Storyteller – Erika Sanderson) ‘The Chronicles of Professor Chronomier’, sleuthing sitcom ‘Inspector Murder Inspects…’ and our epic ‘Sounds & Sweet Airs’ project, which aims to bring the complete works of Shakespeare to the airwaves.

There’s also plenty of behind-the-scenes content, additional audio drama series, audiobooks, poetry, panel games, and more! We’re here to Tell Great Stories, and we’ve plenty of them to choose from!

Discover more about Unbound’s work across audio, theatre, and film at www.unboundtheatre.co.uk.

Solo artist.  Song and dance man.  Folk.  Blues.  Contact:  desertersongs@yahoo.com Film critic at https://paulydeathwish.com/

New tracks tagged #king lear