One of the great pleasures of belonging to an informal reading group (so small that we sometimes don't even get a quorum for our monthly Sunday-afternoon-at-the-library readings) is that we are sometimes invited to attend dress rehearsals at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's productions at Sidney Harman Hall or the Lansburgh. (Near the Verizon Center in downtown Washington, D.C.) So, along with other of the STC's friends, volunteers, ushers, student groups, were a few of us from the Shakespeare Readers ...
invited to see the new production of "King Lear" starring Stacy Keach.
Here is the video interview of Stacy and the director.
http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/digital/0809_7.aspx
This production was updated to 1990s Eastern Europe, roughly paralleling the breakup of Yugoslavia. Reduced to the essence - this "Lear" is sex, violence, tempests, helicopters, holocausts, naked butts, and iambic pentameter. The fall of King Lear starts in the decadence of a posh but seedy hotel, as he symbolically divides his realm among his three daughters by slicing up a gaudy red and green cake (roughly emulating the topography of the kingdom) and offering chunks to the daughters who must declare their unparalleled love and devotion to him.
Wicked daughters Goneril and Regan one-up each other on the excesses of their love for their father; they're rewarded with huge slabs of the realm, and they and their husbands devour their slices of cake greedily. Humble Cordelia points out that if her sisters loved their father so much, how could they have enough love left their husbands? Cordelia, Lear's favorite and most caring daughter, doesn't suck up to him, which bruises his vanity. He banishes her, and she sets off with one of her suitors, some guy from France.
The rest of the play is really confusing to me - I wish I'd studied a plot and character summary before, but just didn't have time. It all goes from seedy decadence to utter decay. The King goes mad, his bad daughters abuse him horribly while engaging in all sorts of lewd acts. There is one older guy who is loyal to the king, and the bad daughters' bad boyfriend rips his eyeballs out. Meanwhile, Lear wanders around in the storm, rips his clothes off and dances off like a crazy person (yup - Stacy Keach's big old bouncing backside).
There's choking and shooting and raping in this show, too - all done on stage. Gosh! I don't think I want to be an actress when I grow up anymore!! How it was all staged is remarkable, but still very confusing and disturbing to me.
Since it was technically a rehearsal, the director could have stopped the action at any point to make adjustments, but he never did. I only spotted one flaw - when one of the evil sisters came in with a line of dialogue a bit too soon and interrupted the other. Everything else, as far as I could tell, was perfect. Just WAY too much sex and violence on stage for my taste.
Long show - first act was an hour and forty minutes, and the second was an hour and ten minutes, according to the director--I think it actually went longer. It ended at about five till 11! And with my wonderful ability to find my way home in the dark (not), I got home at about 10 till midnight.
I love theater even when I hate the show. Lear is one of the most depressing shows you'll ever see. Wrenching and awful and fabulous!
love, hosaa
taking my Shakespeare modern
Nice review. I liked it so much I quoted a few sentences of it in my review of King Lear.
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