Shakespeare's play vividly dramatised the tragic consequences of dividing the kingdom, as opposed to unifying it. A kingdom without order is a kingdom in chaos. In Shakespeare tragic play, King Lear, the responders witness the desolation of a great kingdom.
By not acting according to natural social order, chaos and disharmony in the whole universe is inevitable. This is the first and most significant of many sins that Lear makes in the play. By renouncing his throne to fuel his ego, he disrupts the great chain of being, which states that the King must not challenge the position that God has appointed him. This undermines God's authority, as a result chaos tears Lear's world apart.
A.C. Bradley uses raging storms in his production dramatise the struggle between chaos and order in King Lear. By creating a storm raging in the sky to reflect the storm raging inside Lear. This intertwines the idea of chaos in the universe and chaos within Lear. To bring order to the universe Lear must first bring order to himself.
In Barrie Kosky's production of King Lear, metallic sounds splintered out between scenes. You can hardly call it music, you may even find it disruptive. The metallic sounds emphasise the clanging chaos inside Lear's head during he's madness. Contrastingly the metallic sounds were nowhere to be heard towards the end of the play, which advocates the restoration of order.
Peter Brooks saw Lear's madness as the nexus of chaos and order. In his production that had Lear naked, highlighting madness, which can be expressed as the havoc that impinged chaos. Order was restored when Lear awoke from his madness as a result of his rediscovery of contact with life and the love of daughters.
A 1989 production directed by Jonathan Miller had the blinding of Gloucester take place off the stage. It is an important aspect of the play that had been altered by Miller, but what was more fascinating was that Gloucester blinding was played out as the re-establishment of order.
