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publictheater: The Public Theater’s production of King Lear through Free Shakespeare in the Park’s 2publictheater: The Public Theater’s production of King Lear through Free Shakespeare in the Park’s 2publictheater: The Public Theater’s production of King Lear through Free Shakespeare in the Park’s 2publictheater: The Public Theater’s production of King Lear through Free Shakespeare in the Park’s 2publictheater: The Public Theater’s production of King Lear through Free Shakespeare in the Park’s 2publictheater: The Public Theater’s production of King Lear through Free Shakespeare in the Park’s 2

publictheater:

The Public Theater’s production of King Lear through Free Shakespeare in the Park’s 2013-2014 season, directed by Daniel Sullivan, featuring performers Annette Bening, Chukwudi Iwuji, Clarke Peters, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Jessica Hecht, and John Lithgow.  PC: Joan Marcus.

Creative Team: Set, John Lea Beatty; Light, Jeff Croiter; Costume, Susan Hilferty; Sound, Acme Sound Partners; Original Music, Dan Moses Schreier; Hair & Wigs, Tom Watson; Video, Tal Yarden; Fight Choreographer, Rick Sordelet; Production Stage Manager, Cole Bonenberger.


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Dunbar
DunbarbyEdward St. Aubyn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dunbar had the opportunity to turn a dense Shakespeare into something emotional - but it barely made it there. I was not as invested as I wanted to be in the characters, and mostly they felt distanced. I’d say cold, but even the cold-hearted characters felt a bit dull. This book is incredibly smart, and does tell the story of King Lear in a creative way. Very much like Shakespeare, I think I would have rather watched this rendition, rather than read it.

View all my reviews

Alexander Moissi (1879-1935)  as the jester in King Lear (?)

Alexander Moissi (1879-1935)  as the jester in King Lear (?)


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unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs unkindness313: Bit of Edgar’s arms And bonus legs

unkindness313:

Bit of Edgar’s arms

And bonus legs


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by William Shakespeare

What’s it about?

An English king resigns and divides his kingdom among his three daughters. Except the third daughter refused to play a stupid word game and now it’s divided between the remaining two daughters, with catastrophic results. 

I didn’t know kings could resign.

That is very much the point. The idea is that kings are appointed by divine providence, so they can’t just resign. When this one does, everything goes crazy in agonizing slow motion.

That’s not very progressive language.

In this case, it’s accurate. There’s a great scene in the middle of the play where King Lear has lost his mind. He is accompanied by his court jester, whose job it is to be crazy, and another man who is on the run from the law and is pretending to be an escaped lunatic until things blow over. 

But it has a happy ending, right? 

No. Famously, it’s a tragedy. Although if you’ve read Game of Thrones and you can’t handle an unhappy ending, you should present yourself to the relevant authorities at first light.  

What should I say to make people think I’ve read it?

“Nothing will come of nothing.” 

What should I avoid saying when trying to convince people I’ve read it?

“I liked the bit where he gets the kingdom back.”

Should I actually read it?

No. Go see a production instead. If you saw the 2007 Trevor Nunn production, you’d have seen Ian McKellen’s penis.

nattie-k:Ian McKellen as King Lear, Chichester, 2017 I saw this! I saw this! McKellen was great (of nattie-k:Ian McKellen as King Lear, Chichester, 2017 I saw this! I saw this! McKellen was great (of nattie-k:Ian McKellen as King Lear, Chichester, 2017 I saw this! I saw this! McKellen was great (of

nattie-k:

Ian McKellen as King Lear, Chichester, 2017

I saw this! I saw this! McKellen was great (of course) - from the first scene you could see he was the edge of losing his shit. At times doddery and vulnerable but then there would be moments of utter poise and strength, before switching to terrifying and vicious.

Cordelia was Tamara Lawrance (who recently played an excellent Viola in the National’s Twelfth Night) and she was brilliantly natural but forceful and a believeable leader of the French army.

The elder sisters were wooooonderful, too - as different as an apple to a crab - but equally capable of holding the stage. An unusually sympathetic Goneril, and a giggly and slightly intoxicated Regan. 

Gloucester was just lovely (I spent ages trying to work out where I knew him from until I yelled out ALIEN 3 as we were getting drinks in the interval), and the post-blinding scenes were heartwrenching.

Edmund was devilishly charming, while Edmund was suitably earnest, and gradually fell to pieces seeing his dad so abused. 

Set design was FABULOUSLY simplistic, based around a circular stage (the great thing about the Minerva is you have a great view wherever you sit) with REAL RAIN for the storm scene, and a gigantic portrait of Lear to open the play (see pic above). 

But the best thing about it? Seriously. The fight choreography. It was orchestrated by Kate Waters and fuck me it was good. Like - they’re actually going to kill each other during the final duel kind of good. Edgar fought with a staff and he was full on slamming that thing down just inches from Edmund’s head. And the various stabbings and scuffles didn’t have that ‘stage fighty’ vibe to them - they were scrappy and up close and visceral. Literally the first thing we said to each other as we left the theatre was ‘oh my god the fight choreography’ - I mean, how often does that happen? 

Chichester is good for Lear. I saw Frank Langella there a few years ago and it was similarly stunning. Highly recommend if you can make it. 


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cantankerousquince:

penfairy:

zetsubouloli:

penfairy:

Women have more power and agency in Shakespeare’s comedies than in his tragedies, and usually there are more of them with more speaking time, so I’m pretty sure what Shakespeare’s saying is “men ruin everything” because everyone fucking dies when men are in charge but when women are in charge you get married and live happily ever after

I think you’re reading too far into things, kiddo.
Take a break from your women’s studies major and get some fresh air.

Right. Well, I’m a historian, so allow me to elaborate.

One of the most important aspects of the Puritan/Protestant revolution (in the 1590’s in particular) was the foregrounding of marriage as the most appropriate way of life. It often comes as a surprise when people learn this, but Puritans took an absolutely positive view of sexuality within the context of marriage. Clergy were encouraged to lead by example and marry and have children, as opposed to Catholic clergy who prized virginity above all else. Through his comedies, Shakespeare was promoting this new way of life which had never been promoted before. The dogma, thanks to the church, had always been “durr hburr women are evil sex is bad celibacy is your ticket to salvation.” All that changed in Shakespeare’s time, and thanks to him we get a view of the world where marriage, women, and sexuality are in fact the key to salvation. 

The difference between the structure of a comedy and a tragedy is that the former is cyclical, and the latter a downward curve. Comedies weren’t stupid fun about the lighter side of life. The definition of a comedy was not a funny play. They were plays that began in turmoil and ended in reconciliation and renewal. They showed the audience the path to salvation, with the comic ending of a happy marriage leaving the promise of societal regeneration intact. Meanwhile, in the tragedies, there is no such promise of regeneration or salvation. The characters destroy themselves. The world in which they live is not sustainable. It leads to a dead end, with no promise of new life.

And so, in comedies, the women are the movers and shakers. They get things done. They move the machinery of the plot along. In tragedies, though women have an important part to play, they are often morally bankrupt as compared to the women of comedies, or if they are morally sound, they are disenfranchised and ignored, and refused the chance to contribute to the society in which they live. Let’s look at some examples.

InRomeo and Juliet, the play ends in tragedy because no-one listens to Juliet. Her father and Paris both insist they know what’s right for her, and they refuse to listen to her pleas for clemency. Juliet begs them – screams, cries, manipulates, tells them outright I cannot marry, just wait a week before you make me marry Paris, just a week, please and they ignore her, and force her into increasingly desperate straits, until at last the two young lovers kill themselves. The message? This violent, hate-filled patriarchal world is unsustainable. The promise of regeneration is cut down with the deaths of these children. Compare to Othello. This is the most horrifying and intimate tragedy of all, with the climax taking place in a bedroom as a husband smothers his young wife. The tragedy here could easily have been averted if Othello had listened to Desdemona and Emilia instead of Iago. The message? This society, built on racism and misogyny and martial, masculine honour, is unsustainable, and cannot regenerate itself. The very horror of it lies in the murder of two wives. 

How about Hamlet? Ophelia is a disempowered character, but if Hamlet had listened to her, and not mistreated her, and if her father hadn’t controlled every aspect of her life, then perhaps she wouldn’t have committed suicide. The final scene of carnage is prompted by Laertes and Hamlet furiously grappling over her corpse. When Ophelia dies, any chance of reconciliation dies with her. The world collapses in on itself. This society is unsustainable. King Lear – we all know that this is prompted by Cordelia’s silence, her unwillingness to bend the knee and flatter in the face of tyranny. It is Lear’s disproportionate response to this that sets off the tragedy, and we get a play that is about entropy, aging and the destruction of the social order.  

There are exceptions to the rule. I’m sure a lot of you are crying out “but Lady Macbeth!” and it’s a good point. However, in terms of raw power, neither Lady Macbeth nor the witches are as powerful as they appear. The only power they possess is the ability to influence Macbeth; but ultimately it is Macbeth’s own ambition that prompts him to murder Duncan, and it is he who escalates the situation while Lady Macbeth suffers a breakdown. In this case you have women who are allowed to influence the play, but do so for the worse; they fail to be the good moral compasses needed. Goneril, Regan and Gertrude are similarly comparable; they possess a measure of power, but do not use it for good, and again society cannot renew itself.

Now we come to the comedies, where women do have the most control over the plot. The most powerful example is Rosalind in As You Like It. She pulls the strings in every avenue of the plot, and it is thanks to her control that reconciliation is achieved at the end, and all end up happily married. Much Ado About Nothing pivots around a woman’s anger over the abuse of her innocent cousin. If the men were left in charge in this play, no-one would be married at the end, and it would certainly end in tragedy. But Beatrice stands up and rails against men for their cruel conduct towards women and says that famous, spine-tingling line - oh God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace. And Benedick, her suitor, listens to her. He realises that his misogynistic view of the world is wrong and he takes steps to change it. He challenges his male friends for their conduct, parts company with the prince, and by doing this he wins his lady’s hand. The entire happy ending is dependent on the men realising that they must trust, love and respect women. Now it is a society that it worthy of being perpetuated. Regeneration and salvation lies in equality between the sexes and the love husbands and wives cherish for each other. The Merry Wives of Windsor - here we have men learning to trust and respect their wives, Flastaff learning his lesson for trying to seduce married women, and a daughter tricking everyone so she can marry the man she truly loves. A Midsummer Night’s Dream? The turmoil begins because three men are trying to force Hermia to marry someone she does not love, and Helena has been cruelly mistreated. At the end, happiness and harmony comes when the women are allowed to marry the men of their choosing, and it is thesemarriages that are blessed by the fairies.

What of the romances? In The Tempest, Prospero holds the power, but it is Miranda who is the key to salvation and a happy ending. Without his daughter, it is likely Prospero would have turned into a murderous revenger. The Winter’s Tale sees Leontes destroy himself through his own jealousy. The king becomes a vicious tyrant because he is cruel to his own wife and children, and this breach of faith in suspecting his wife of adultery almost brings ruin to his entire kingdom. Only by obeying the sensible Emilia does Leontes have a chance of achieving redemption, and the pure trust and love that exists between Perdita and Florizel redeems the mistakes of the old generation and leads to a happy ending. Cymbeline? Imogen is wronged, and it is through her love and forgiveness that redemption is achieved at the end. In all of these plays, without the influence of the women there is no happy ending.

The message is clear. Without a woman’s consent and co-operation in living together and bringing up a family, there is turmoil. Equality between the sexes and trust between husbands and wives alone will bring happiness and harmony, not only to the family unit, but to society as a whole. The Taming of the Shrew rears its ugly head as a counter-example, for here a happy ending is dependent on a woman’s absolute subservience and obedience even in the face of abuse. But this is one of Shakespeare’s early plays (and a rip-off of an older comedy called The Taming of a Shrew) and it is interesting to look at how the reception of this play changed as values evolved in this society. 

As early as 1611 The Shrew was adapted by the writer John Fletcher in a play called The Woman’s Prize, or The Tamer Tamed. It is both a sequel and an imitation, and it chronicles Petruchio’s search for a second wife after his disastrous marriage with Katherine (whose taming had been temporary) ended with her death. In Fletcher’s version, the men are outfoxed by the women and Petruchio is ‘tamed’ by his new wife. It ends with a rather uplifting epilogue that claims the play aimed:

To teach both sexes due equality

And as they stand bound, to love mutually.

The Taming of the ShrewandThe Tamer Tamed were staged back to back in 1633, and it was recorded that although Shakespeare’s Shrew was “liked”, Fletcher’s Tamer Tamed was “very well liked.” You heard it here folks; as early as 1633 audiences found Shakespeare’s message of total female submission uncomfortable, and they preferred John Fletcher’s interpretation and his message of equality between the sexes.

So yes. The message we can take away from Shakespeare is that a world in which women are powerless and cannot or do not contribute positively to society and family is unsustainable. Men, given the power and left to their own devices, will destroy themselves. But if men and women can work together and live in harmony, then the whole community has a chance at salvation, renewal and happiness.  

My Naruto phase is currently taking up most of my time at @not-so-terrible, but I just got the position of lighting designer in a King Lear production and I’m ecstatic! 

Hi King Lear cast!

Hi King Lear cast!


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NEW/OLD: 2019. Bryant Park, NYC.

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simonreid: “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!” Another #Shakespeare400 drawing. I pl

simonreid:

 “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!”

Another #Shakespeare400 drawing. I plan to move on to a few of the histories next!


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shakespeareweekly: The three royal sisters: Kate Fleetwood, Anna Maxwell Martin and Olivia Vinall inshakespeareweekly: The three royal sisters: Kate Fleetwood, Anna Maxwell Martin and Olivia Vinall inshakespeareweekly: The three royal sisters: Kate Fleetwood, Anna Maxwell Martin and Olivia Vinall in

shakespeareweekly:

The three royal sisters: Kate Fleetwood, Anna Maxwell Martin and Olivia Vinall in rehearsal for National Theatre’s King Lear (2014) (ph. Mark Douet) (x)


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shakespeareweekly: Kate Fleetwood in rehearsal for National Theatre’s King Lear (2014) (ph. Mark Dou

shakespeareweekly:

Kate Fleetwood in rehearsal for National Theatre’s King Lear (2014) (ph. Mark Douet) (x)


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aeschylus-stan-account:

aeschylus-stan-account:

Unintentionally humorous moment in this Yiddish translation of King Lear: for “unburden’d, crawl towards death,” the translator has “באַפֿרײַט פֿון לאַסט/מיר װעלן שלעפּ זיך דעם טאָיט אַנקעגן”. For “crawl”, the translator chose “drag myself”, which is fine, except that the word in Yiddish is one you’ll already know: “schlep”.* “I will schlep myself toward death,” said King Lear.

*granted, the word probably doesn’t have the same connotation in Yiddish–it just means “to drag” and is appropriate, but to a modern reader? That’s incredible.

Pictured: King Lear’s finest Jewish Mom Moments:

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