With two contrasting video performances of the first thirty lines of King Lear anyone can quickly come to know that Shakespeare lives in performance. Does Edmund the schemer stand a few feet off listening, slyly gathering court gossip for his upcoming power move, or is he right there in the conversation being shamed yet another time by his thoughtless father and not surprisingly simmering in anger that will soon be revealed? The director and actors choose, but Shakespeare sets up opportunities like that endlessly. The life is in the character that actors create out of the opportunities laced by the writer into the lines.

PS. If you see a film or live performance and any of the actors don't seem to have noticed these opportunities, they don't understand how Shakespeare works. But we do.