and the entire challenge with dan sullivan's exquisite guidance is finding the benchmarks, finding the moments that, for an example, the moment when his madness, he has these huge, huge temper tantrums with his daughters, all three of them. that propels him a certain assistance toward madness -- a certain distance toward madness. but then she's shut out in a wild and crazy storm. then he meets a mad beggar and the site of that -- sight of that mad beggar, poor tom a beggar in disguise, kicks it into another degree. suddenly he sees, this is the solution! this is an accommodative man, no more such a poor bare-forked animal as thou art. scales fall from his eyes. he's going mad but it's taking him toward. >> rose: he's coming through to some kind of vision. >> madness is cauterizing wounds, it's clearing his brain in a lot of ways. >> rose: when you recite shakespeare and speak shakespeare do you feel i am so in touch with the gods of expression? i feel likes it's like a musician sight reading marvelous chamber music. a lot of shakespeare is familiar to me by now but a lot of classical m

and it is dan sullivan's wonderful concept, in my opinion, the first time you see him he is extremelybout this plan for dividing his kingdom. like it is something he has not really thought through yet. and his fool is in the scene. you get a sense of him being a very robust man with a huge, open heart, and a great sense of humor, but he has aged more than people realize. charlie: some people ask the question, is he mad from the beginning, or does he lose his mind over the process of the play? john: that is annexed to a good question, and is the number one challenge is calculating how he goes mad. there is beginnings of a propensity of madness. i think when he explodes completely irrationally at cordelia, it is a shock to her. she has probably seen his temper before, but she has never seen him like this. she has never seen him that insane. this is the first in his whole life -- the person in his whole life he loves the most, and it is because of the intensity of that love that his anger has such a reaction. for everyone, it is a new shock. they talk about how we are seeing more and mor