A NEW TAKE
The King Fades with the Madness of Age
Lear 1x3 ("one by three") offers three takes on Shakespeare's towering tragedy, ‘King Lear’. The first act will be performed three separate times, each with a striking difference.
The King decides to divide up his kingdom, and turn his rule over to his three daughters and their spouses if they profess their love to his satisfaction. "this our fast intent," he tells his court, "to shake all cares and business from our age, conferring them on younger strengths, while we unburdened crawl toward death."
This experimental take on Shakespeare's classic tale deals with the emotions of living with - living under, living at the whim of - a man more and more out of step with reality will be familiar to many.
Director's Note - Lear and the Long Goodbye
At the close of Act One of King Lear, the Fool tells their distraught and tormented monarch, “Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.” Questions about age and wisdom swirl around the first act of Shakespeare’s play: powerful issues that we all face in so many different ways as part of the human experience.
Welcome to the first installment in Baker Theatre Workshop’s multi-year exploration of King Lear, one act at a time! What you are about to experience is different from your standard mounting of this play; this company of actors is going to give you three different versions of the
first act of King Lear. The aim is twofold: first to present an experience that will deepen our understanding and grasp of the play’s first act, and second and more importantly to explore the idea of aging and loss from Shakespeare’s time into our very own.
1. Our first version of Act One is a classical, traditional presentation of the original text, mounted in a straightforward way. Lear, king of England, plans to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, provided they first declare their love to him.
2. In the second version, we accentuate the divide between the aging Lear and his court, with Lear continuing to speak the Shakespearean text while the rest of the company improvise their dialogue in a modern vernacular, moving more out of sync with each
other.
3. In our final version, we follow a powerful patriarch named Lear as he divides up his empire among his daughters. In this version, Lear is without the power of speech, while the company improvises a more modern, more interpretative experience.
Throughout our experiment today, we want to take you from a centuries-old exploration of aging and family to a more modern depiction of the long, painful goodbye more and more of us have
to face with loved ones. The aim isn’t to show the original play as old fashioned, but rather to reveal the play’s power to resonate in our times via an approach that stresses immediacy.
Like all experiments, the outcome is always unknown, but I’ve been so lucky and regularly amazed by the bravery and commitment of this company of actors as they explore this work. I know you’re all in for a treat as they take us on a journey from the raging hurricanes of an old
mad king to the long goodbye too many of us have had to make.
Thanks to my company, crew, and my co-director Peter Temes for their gifts. And thank you all
for joining us in this experiment!
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- Jeremy Radick