Paul Scofield, Ian McKellen and Glenda Jackson have all redefined Shakespeare's unpredictable ruler " a role in which actors usually succeed Kenneth Branagh is set to play, and direct, King Lear and doubtless we shall hear the usual critical cliches about his attempt to scale a theatrical Everest. But is the role of Lear that difficult? The 19th-century American actor Edwin Forrest said: "I play Hamlet, Othello and M…
