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- When we started work on Lear last
January, it seemed as though this moment would never
arrive. June was a long way away and King Lear, his
daughters, Gloucester and his sons, the heath, the storm, the
madness all felt like a kind of actor's dream. We were
enjoying the possibility, dreaming of a far off day when our
work would be lit with the warm lights of the stage and the
theatre would be filled with the rumblings of thunder.
"Are we really going to do this?" "Of
course." "But -- in June." And in the
bitter cold nights of winter, June was a mist, a vapor a spell
from Merlin's Cave.
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- June arrived on time. Those
early rehearsals, where we searched the waters of this deep
unfathomable play, where we dove for pearls, and brought up
handfuls of strange sparkling sand, are behind us now. And
our discoveries have begun to make the play our own and
irrevocably changed its image in our minds. I
suppose that is what draws us to the great works of theatre,
what urges us to commit so much time and effort to a
production. It is the uncovering of secrets hidden beneath
the surface; secrets which reveal to us and finally to
you, the audience, a thought, an idea, an image that exposes
something intimate and human and brings us closer to an
understanding of our human existence.
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- Deep in our hearts, we all know
how this world goes. We stumble through our daily lives
keeping our deepest misgivings at bay and making a life for
ourselves that seeks to avoid the darkness. Shakespeare
has written a play in King Lear that strips a man of those daily
diversions and forces him to come face to face with life's
ultimate questions: "Who Am I?"
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- Throughout much of the play, Lear
is desperate to be treated as his position defines him - to be
given the deference and obedience due a King - so much so that
he begins to define himself as omnipotent and incapable of
error. He believes that the gods approve and even
intervene on his behalf. Lear is the center of the Universe;
the heavens, the stars, the machinations of the sky all bend to
his will and do his bidding. Every decision and utterance,
however rash, is god-filled. The evolution of Lear from a
rash king to a foolish, simple old man is driven by a force of
nature which slowly, but powerfully, strips away all external
definitions of self. Lear's humanity is ultimately revealed
to him and to his daughter Cordelia, but only after a caustic
bath which robs him of power, title, fatherhood, sanity and
ultimately his very identity. Lear is reborn in the most
profound sense of the word. He awakens from his madness,
empty and unknowing. As he regains his memory, he does not
bemoan the loss of his kingdom, his power, or his glory, but
rather awakens to an understanding that he is just a man -
"a poor, bare, forked animal"..."fourscore and
upward, not an hour more nor less"; a man in need of
forgiveness. It is enough finally, that he and Cordelia,
now reunited in love, should be happy - even in prison - singing
like tow birds in a cage. To be just a man - foolish,
flawed, ignorant, powerless - and still be loved is a great
revelation to the old monarch. And for a brief moment in
his life he knows happiness.
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- When it is violently snatched away
just moments later is the great tragedy of living on this earth.
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- Lear has been transforming me as
an actor. It has transformed me as a man. It has gently,
but firmly humbled me before its brilliance, its scope and
grandeur. It has, in a most wonderful way, given me a kind
of peace with my work and my struggle as an artist. It has
given me permission to just "be." It is our
fervent wish that this joy and our great love and respect
for Shakespeare's play is conveyed to you in our production.
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