The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 20.0381 Thursday, 16 July 2009
From: Hannibal Hamlin <
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Date: Wednesday, 15 Jul 2009 15:45:28 -0400
Subject: Re: King Lear at the Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC
Dear Hardy,
My response to the Shakespeare Theater King Lear was much the same as
yours. Keach and Gero were both very good, especially in their scenes
together. The actresses playing the daughters were, alas, not so. Like
you, though, my strongest criticism was of the production, which seemed
sophomoric and self-indulgent. The best part of the production was in
the middle, when the concept was largely abandoned, and Lear and
Gloucester appeared in a kind of existential junkyard as homeless
rejects. This was powerful stuff. The set was stunning, and the actors
were left alone to do their work, which they did superbly. But it made
me all the more irritated with the stupidity of Falls's idea to set the
play in Yugoslavia/Bosnia. So Lear is a fascist dictator, but in a
country where the dictatorship is determined by primogeniture? And
instead of the soldiers of English and French armies, we have a motley
assembly of Russian-Mafia-style thugs? At one point, the stage is
littered with bodybags, suggesting the Killing Fields of Cambodia, but
it's hard to know how this has anything remotely to do with
Shakespeare's play, with its more orderly (?) war between nations. The
dead Cordelia appears bruised and mostly naked at the end, seeming to
have been raped as well as hanged. It's nice that Lear killed the man
who hanged her, but why did he wait until after she was raped!? How nice
would it be if this kind of facile "updating" of Shakespeare could be
dispatched with! And it's not even new!! Nothing is more tired and
rehashed than the "period" updating of Shakespeare, especially if
jackboots and fascist banners are involved. In fact, much of Falls's
production seemed derivative of more famous (and not necessarily
successful) Shakespeare productions. I would have yawned if I hadn't
been gnashing my teeth.
My wife and I went out for tapas after the show and were delighted to
see Keach and Gero at the next table. I imagined the two of them
grumbling about inadequate directors just as they had about venal
Justices earlier on stage. Ah well.
Hannibal Hamlin
Associate Professor of English
The Ohio State University
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