ARTS & EVENTS

Tonight's Top Stop: King Lear

Photo by Michelle Repiso/ExpressA FATHER AND THREE DAUGHTERS, or a king and a lot of land to carve up, or an outcast and a fool — "King Lear" is a sort of prism of shifting allegiances, the nature of love and the brokering of power, all related in some of William Shakespeare's most intense and lyrical language. In a co-production with the Folger Theatre, the Classical Theatre of Harlem brings the tragedy roaring to life with vibrance and physicality, using the towering presence of actor Andre de Shields, 61, as the play's emotional and narrative centerpiece. Classical Theatre co-founder Alfred Preisser, who spoke with Express about his production, sets the play in the ancient Middle East to point up its timeliness and sensuality.

» EXPRESS: You have a number of factors at work. How do you fuse these elements?
» PREISSER: Well, I think that when you do one of these plays, you have to recognize that they're always happening in the theater. They're not happening in some archaeological representation of ancient Britain or Mesopotamia. So in an ongoing conversation with the cast … it was important to us to make the text visible ... telling the story through the actors' bodies and their physical relation to each other.

» EXPRESS: You have to stage fights.
» PREISSER: That's a feature of all tragedies — they're melodramatic, they're violent. I think Shakespeare was giving his audience something they enjoyed. His plays were as close to popular entertainment in a world where that included bear-baiting and dog fights and caging the cat and things like that.

» EXPRESS: In what way is "King Lear" a political play?
» PREISSER: To me, a figure like Fidel Castro is King Lear. King Lear has been around for a long time; he's unquestionably great. When Castro dies, there will be all these people who have no place in the world. They will become obsolete. So if "Lear" has a grand political idea, it's being played out in places like Cuba. It's being played out in places like Iraq, where [Saddam] Hussein was a Lear-like figure. … And he had his own storm, when he was in that spider hole, he had everything stripped away — the golden toilet, the concubines, the political power, and he was just a man in the hole in the ground.

» EXPRESS: How do you see the role of the fool?
» PREISSER: The fool could have hidden in Gloucester's home, but he doesn't — he follows Lear out into the storm. But mainly he's attached to Lear. Obviously, in the play and in the idea of the play, the fool, the jester, is the inversion of a king as well. He's the comic photonegative of the king.

» EXPRESS: It's really as much the daughters' story as Lear's.
» PREISSER: It's like a fairy tale: Once upon a time, there was a great king and he had three daughters … and that's kind of a jumping-off point for a great story — a Grimm's fairy tale about the nature of devotion within a family.

» Folger Shakespeare Theatre, 201 East Capitol St.; through Feb. 18, $25-$50; 202-544-7077. (Capitol South)

Photo by Michelle Repiso/Express

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COMMENTS (1)

  • To equate the character of King Lear with Fidel Castro or Saddam Hussein is ludicrous. If we accept this interpretation, then Lear is a king who has brutally tortured and murdered his political rivals and has committed genocide. If true, it would make a mockery of the character of Kent, a man of unquestioned integrity,who obviously worships Lear and who would willingly give up his life for him. Imagine Kent, who vehemently protests Lear's disinheritance of Cordelia, tolerating for one minute the behavior of a Castro or Hussein. And what of Cordelia, Lear's favorite daughter, a woman of great courage and impeccable integrity, who is too honest to humor Lear's ego and vanity. Imagine her tolerating a Castro or a Hussein. Her love and concern for Lear is so great that when she hears of him being endangered, she mounts a foreign innvasion in order to rescue him. The attitude and relationship of Kent and Cordelia towards Lear Gives us great insight into Lear's true character and worth. Ultimately King lear is far more than a political play or the nature of devotion within a family. It's themes are of the most profound nature: redemption; self realization; the myth of universal justice; fortuitousness in the battle between good and evil; the nature of evil. The 80 year old Lear has been king for many decades. During his reign he has slowly and inexorably become blind to reality. He is a man of vast potential; a man of enormous passion, humanity, dignity and strength who has been inundated with lies flattery, unchallenged obedience and false adoration. His purpose and control have been eroded by his increasingly irrational emotional state. By the end of the play however, he achieves self realization He repents for his past errors and bad judgement.Most important, he comes to understand and feel deep empathy for the down trodden and misfortunate of the world. Equate this with Castro, who has never expressed regret for any of his odious deeds, or Hussein. who was defiant to the very end. Preisser's evaluation is a misreading and an insult to the character of King Lear who at his worst rises far above them. Lear is an 80 year old with the heart of a gladiator, who fights an epic and magnificent struggle against overwhelming physical and emotional turmoil and whose implacable refusal to surrender make him one of the greatest, most towering and pasionate tragic characters ever created.

    By Alexander Barnett , Posted January 16, 2007 12:20 PM
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