Question: Jack Whitam appeared as Burgundy in the play King Lear. Who is the author of this play?
Context: King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.  It depicts the gradual descent into madness of the title character, after he disposes of his kingdom giving bequests to two of his three daughters based on their flattery of him, bringing tragic consequences for all.  Derived from the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king, the play has been widely adapted for the stage and motion pictures, with the title role coveted by many of the world's most accomplished actors. Whitam studied acting at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.  Shortly after graduating in 2003, he went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company for their Tragedies Season where he appeared as Lennox in Macbeth directed by Dominic Cooke and Burgundy in King Lear directed by Bill Alexander.  He also appeared in a newly devised piece called PILATE directed by Michael Boyd King Lear is a 1987 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, an adaptation of Shakespeare's play in the style of experimental French New Wave cinema.  The script was primarily by Peter Sellars and Tom Luddy, and was originally assigned to Norman Mailer.  It is not a typical cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy "King Lear", although some lines from the play are used in the film.  Only three characters – Lear, Cordelia and Edgar – are common to both, and only Act I, scene 1 is given a conventional cinematic treatment in that two or three people actually engage in relatively meaningful dialogue. King Lear (Italian: "Re Lear" ) is a 1910 Italian silent historical drama film directed by Gerolamo Lo Savio and starring Ermete Novelli, Francesca Bertini and Olga Giannini Novelli.  It is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's "King Lear". The Yiddish King Lear (Yiddish: דער ייִדישער קעניג ליר‎ "Der Yidisher Konig Lir", also known as The Jewish King Lear) was an 1892 play by Jacob Gordin, and is generally seen as ushering in the first great era of Yiddish theater in the Yiddish Theater District, in which serious drama gained prominence over operetta. Goneril is a character in Shakespeare's tragic play "King Lear" (1605).  She is the eldest of King Lear's three daughters.  Along with her sister Regan, Goneril is considered a villain, obsessed with power and overthrowing her elderly father as ruler of the kingdom of Britain.  Her aggressiveness is a rare trait for a female character in Elizabethan literature. Re Lear (] ; Italian for "King Lear") is an Italian operatic libretto in four acts written by Antonio Somma for the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi.  It was based on "King Lear", "the Shakespeare play with which Verdi struggled for so many years, but without success". Cordelia is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's tragic play, "King Lear".  She is the youngest of King Lear's three daughters, and his favourite.  After her elderly father offers her the opportunity to profess her love to him in return for one third of the land in his kingdom, she refuses and is banished for the majority of the play. King Lear (Russian: Король Лир , "Korol Lir " ) is a 1971 Soviet drama film directed by Grigori Kozintsev, based on William Shakespeare's play "King Lear".  The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich composed the score. King Lear is a 1999 adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name.  The film stars Brian Blessed (who also co-directed the film, along with Tony Rotherham) in the title role.  Apart from Peter Brook's "King Lear" in 1971, it is the only other feature length film adaptation to preserve Shakespeare's verse.  Yvonne Griggs, in "Shakespeare's King Lear: A close study of the relationship between text and film" (2009), characterised it as "a very stilted costume drama".
Answer: William Shakespeare