Riz Ahmed as Edmund in King Lear: 'Now, gods, stand up for bastards' | Shakespeare Solos

Riz Ahmed speaks Edmund’s soliloquy from the start of Act I, Scene 2 in King Lear. Edmund reflects upon being an illegitimate son and plots against his half-brother, Edgar.
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[@mwallace826]

When he moves straight into the camera.. I feel like Will Shakespeare would have LOVED that. And his inflections as he says "I must have your land" sound like his real-life childhood accent popping out, which makes it somehow even more intimate and profound. Absolutely incredible, a joy to watch!

[@bobbyburgess6332]

Absolutely

[@Ceej_MM]

Will? Were you friends, yeah?

[@archer1949]

I loved the play on the word "legitimate".

[@XxHPxFanXx]

Lew Archer 1949 Sorry, I don't understand it. Could someone please explain it to me?

[@archer1949]

The first time he says it, it's in the original French pronunciation. Then the second time he says it as a pun: "legit mate". It's really clever.

[@amedeahuntley2277]

One vowel missing. Not that clever!

[@elizabetepauliute3494]

Amedea Huntley one vowel in Shakespeare is a lot 😌

[@SerPinkKnight]

Agreed, nothing is more in the spirit of Shakespeare than adding a pun since they're wall to wall with them based on contemporary speech

[@DesmondaCathabel]

get you a man who can do both. A rapper and a thespian! yeeessssssiirrrrrr

[@coreycox2345]

That was excellent, Desmonda Cathabel.

[@qazwsx5177]

His acting is so overwhelming. What an amazing and underrated actor.

[@tyrstark8673]

Riz Ahmed: ''I'm telling you I can act in a theatre!'' Shakespeare: ''Bor Gullet will prove if what thou sayeth is true.''

[@reyskywaka3202]

Such an underrated actor

[@melindanavarro3095]

i literally had to bite my lip. he is a LOT of man to handle.

[@andrewtucker94]

I agree. Unfortunately, though, Will has been dead for many centuries.

[@theagabler5845]

I’m reading Lear again, and just had to come back to this. Simply stunning!

[@maxhalsted5381]

Absolutely. I watched it three times before everything sunk in

[@annettelee3007]

This was one of the best versions of this soliloquy in my opinion. The musicality and comprehensibility was amazing.

[@alexkruger9793]

Wonderfully performed, even if the camera angle cuts can, to my mind, only really be described as inexplicable.

[@stevensmearman2536]

I couldn't agree more.

[@2ndRatePetronius]

Visceral and vital in its anger and resentment.

[@michael1882yt]

Fast becoming one of my favourite actors.

[@sarahdaydream9682]

My oh my, he's so breathtakingly talented and beautiful! 😊

[@tootooloo]

HIS LAUGH AT THE END. SO FUCKING CUTE. MY SON

[@taniascreations]

🤣🤣🤣

[@mnving4880]

Brilliant as the word legitimate! Wonderful actor who just made me fall in love with the words of Shakespeare. I'm enacting this in my school drama for sure!

[@127TROOP]

That truly is terrifying in its delivery.....and so so beautiful......

[@fayrahman95]

It feels like he stares right into my soul when he is looking at the camera.

[@sampsonraysimon]

This is my 2nd favorite Willie Shakespeare monologue. Great delivery here.

[@sarahbeardsley]

this is truly how I imagine Shakespeare would have wanted the words to be spoken.

[@iamSeanBrowne]

THAT's how you do it L&G.. ;) Big hat's off to Riz Ahmed.

[@diegoborges1348]

That "bastardy" hits me deep

[@martafree1130]

This is perfect.

[@kasiamcenery680]

love that, I just can't get brother omar out my head, four lions was a classic

[@axelcarlsson6795]

He should be Hamilton, if they ever make a movie!

[@HarperNguyen]

Axel Carlsson II that's a good call

[@colorist80]

Indeed!

[@akechijubeimitsuhide]

I hope he gets to play it on stage!

[@andrewlambert7464]

Watch his eyes...Edmund is here...

[@shakespearaamina9117]

Such a brilliant performance🌷

[@jellybean17397]

HES GONNA BE A LIT HAMLET

[@drachna]

Edmund the base shall top the legitimate... 👀

[@mangosquirrel117]

well my legit mate

[@luckyDancer100]

Someone make this movie with Riz!

[@user-wm5jh8pp1t]

im about to have my audition, thanks for this man's bless.

[@hawkeye1448]

That was awesome !!!!

[@kellydg471]

I want to see him in the whole play! Also, I would love to see him as iago.

[@diepotatohead]

whoa, is this the guy from venom

[@FilmedbyEdmund]

Whoa!!

[@user-yq8mq9fm6w]

sooooo badass

[@amenakh897]

Wow! That was good!

[@Mr.Jasaw13]

brilliant

[@MrThorfan64]

Anyone else brought here by Race for the Iron Throne?

[@Jon.A.Scholt]

Steven Atwell is one of my favorites! Check his Tumblr and his CBC reviews on his WordPress site all the time! Didn't see his post about this though and was pleasantly surprised to see a Race for the Iron Throne mention, you have good taste sir!

[@jonathanryals9934]

Wow.... Bravo! My favorite Shakespearean character! One suggestion... you should stress that first line as you did some of the later ones. He's already worked up and at the peak of frenzy at the start of this soliloquy. The whole speech, the audience should be remembering your declaration of nature as your goddess, and that you consider yourself bound to her law alone. Also, I believe he goes through a series of sudden emotional shifts in this passage demonstrating his unhinged nature. But, I would question the lines where you used laughter... it is funny the tribe of fops thing, but personally I see him meaning it in a genuinely mean-spirited way. And at the final line, I just don't see a weak giggle. He is shouting angrily at the gods! If you were going to use a laugh here, it is your chance to shine as an actor and give a great maniacal cackle. Though, again, I see that final line without laughter, rather with brutal seriousness.

[@cicerogsuphoesdown7723]

Also.... a maniacal cackle? Are you serious. Edmund isn’t a Disney villain. He’s a human being.

[@troza101]

Very insightful. I agree, that laughter/ giggle after the last line, should be the unhinged/ brutal gutteral maniacal growl!

[@sj9365]

This is amazing 👏

[@kasetophono]

Musically this was pretty dope

[@valezamudio6447]

Hi, I really need to know if this monologue is in verse or prose

[@troza101]

It is in the verse form (Iambic pentameter)

[@swirlcrop]

Well done.

[@burningknight7]

fucked me up in my brain.

[@sanalmeida4494]

ow excellent dear ;-)

[@mollyjones727]

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

[@BatmaaanNananananana]

Memmeeen Na'az!

[@ericdovigi7927]

damn!!!!!

[@Henbot]

Acoustics should be way better, more compacted space - great delivery but think location needed to be better

[@michaelexman5474]

Also star wars

[@FredFuchs77]

Wow

[@martintube24]

Wow, didn't know Bruno Fernandes was well-versed in Shakespeare as well. Is there anything this man cannot do? Portuguese Magnifico! Proper Man United captain 👍

[@jennifermorris6848]

One of the best Shylock’s I’ve ever heard.

[@mjc5509]

Shakespeare innit dude ?

[@sethleoric2598]

This guy sounds perfect for a middle eastern scholar

[@Charlie-te2tt]

I don't think he's underrated, a lot of people know he is a brilliant actor. That said, this is a hard speech to f.up and Robert Lyndsey's version is better.

[@anarchoautism]

Based

[@Gh0stily111]

00:39-00:44 gypsey crusader live chat.

[@anarchoautism]

@@Gh0stily111 i was enjoying forgetting he existed

[@Gh0stily111]

@@anarchoautism well in that case, I’m sorry I reminded you.

[@anarchoautism]

@@Gh0stily111 i would’ve been reminded some other way lol

[@Gh0stily111]

@@anarchoautism assuming your name rings true and you’re like me, an aspie that is eternally online, then I have no doubt that, that’s true and you’ll find him in your recommended some time soon.

[@jamescoate862]

As a student of this speech, I would recommend you don't sit in the audience next time you give it.

[@ElectricLabel]

He is a fine actor but walks right into the Problem with Lear here. He needs a director who knows how to direct Shakespeare. Is there one?

[@kmm2442]

Lost me at the first word. Why does shakespheare do this to me.

[@urbanapache2]

DOD??? not doth? everyone is going mental over this performance, but what in the Hell is dod...

[@mynamearcher8726]

Don't laugh at the end. You did a good thing, outside of your comfort zone. No need to laugh as an apology.

[@cicerogsuphoesdown7723]

Myname Archer didn’t read as an apology. Also if the most compelling thing about Shakespeare is owning the language and thereby possessing the character who are you to decide what that character would or would not do be it laugh whisper or whimper. Not your place to offer advice from some ivory tower. Especially to such a compelling read from such a compelling actor.

[@maybebabyny]

Does he even understand what base means? Also...did he sneeze at the end?

[@saultuite8679]

Just a bit confused as to why Edgar has been played so idiotic...

[@ketaminejones3981]

Gross

[@LePlerome]

an abomination

[@iainrobb2076]

Even by the philistine postmodern standards of the Left's continued anti-cultural bastardisation of Shakespeare, this is utterly incompetent. He's ignoring all end breaks on enjambed lines, he's ignoring all promotions and demotions of stresses, which in this speech aren't even difficult to acknowledge, he's putting all the accents in the wrong places, he's overacting, he's reading the lines too fast and also unintelligibly, so it's near enough impossible to absorb the meaning. This is absolutely terrible. This is iambic pentameter verse. What purpose does it serve Shakespeare in any shape or form whatever to have some guy mangle every line of it as if were nothing but stilted prose?

[@KorAnos1]

"the Left's" *sigh* Someone _had_ to bring their political hangups to the Bard.

[@iainrobb2076]

It's the Left that keep on doing it. The day when a black transgender woman who identifies as a Native American in a wheelchair with a hammer and sickle tattoed on their forehead gets to play the male lead in Anthony and Cleopatra isn't far ahead. Cleopatra will be played by some South American tribe guy with a disc inside his mouth. Parts of the dialogue will be changed to rap lyrics, and some of the minor characters will start bursting out into quotations from the Communist Manifesto. Do you think this isn't going to happen? This kind of postmodernist absurdity is why that awful Emma Rice character was fired from the Globe. And she even admitted she doesn't herself understand Shakespeare if she reads it off a page. The Left are abject philistines. Can anyone name me one single great poet anywhere who happened to be Left Wing?

[@KorAnos1]

It's a nightmare only you're seeing. Some things are beyond politics.

[@iainrobb2076]

Except for Shakespeare, apparently, and poetry, where the Far Left are concerned.

[@nt300uk]

I don't get what's left-wing about this performance?

[@hamarbiljungskile8953]

Meh, I've seen better. Much better.

[@mcrettable]

yikes

[@silkbox7553]

Stop appropriating our culture Riz.

[@Sunsets-nr6lv]

naff, i can do much better than him. and have done.

[@davidconley3734]

They have to keep putting muslims into English roles. That doesnt bring our cultures together at all.

[@taurusking_1997]

But he's English lol

[@HarperNguyen]

MR. KITTYGAR he’s also a Muslim

[@taurusking_1997]

@@HarperNguyen your point?

[@HarperNguyen]

MR. KITTYGAR I just reckon it does bring our cultures together in the best way possible. Being a Muslim and being English aren’t mutually exclusive

[@taurusking_1997]

@@HarperNguyen Hm optimistic approach. I very much like that.

[@SoldierBoy3848]

Bravo