WRITTEN BY RONALD ROMÁN-MELÈNDEZ
CONTEXT OF KING LEAR
Welcome to England! Well, a version of England anyway. This England is set in an ethereal and ephemeral space outside a particular time. Though the characters are dressed in silhouettes inspired by the fashion of the late 1800s, the story exists in a time and place of its own. This England is both then and now.
It is an important and exciting day for this England. Not only is it the day that the King will be dividing the power of his throne to his three daughters, it is also the wedding day of the King’s youngest daughter, Cordelia! Whether that marriage will be to the Duke of Burgundy or the King of France remains to be seen. Before decisions of marriage and kingdom are made, however, the King gathers his family to ask them a very important question. The story that unfolds thereafter is one of tragedy, danger, plotting, family drama, and political intrigue.
THEMES OF KING LEAR
POWER CORRUPTS
At the top of the power structure of this world is King Lear, a singular entity. The play would have us believe, or at least infer, that Lear’s rule has been a positive one and that the events that transpire in the play result from the shock and surprise at the changing nature of the monarch. Lear divides his kingdom amongst his children and, misjudging their loyalty, he finds himself stripped of the trappings of state, wealth, and power that had once defined him. The seat of power now split between the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall, we watch the rest of the play unfold as those who rise in the power structure of the world do whatever they must to wrestle more power into their hands—be that through subterfuge, betrayal, or violence.
ORDER VS CHAOS
King Lear show us how power struggles can create waste, decay, and destruction. At the beginning of the play, when Lear is King, there is order. After Lear’s banishes Cordelia and divides the kingdom between Goneril and Regan, order is broken and the realm is thrown into the chaos of greed and the pursuit of power by many opposing forces. Chaos ensues—both political and personal. This chaos gives way to total carnage across the land and the people of the world are made to wade through carnage. Edmund upsets the order of Gloucester’s household by sabotaging his brother and betraying his father, the result of which is catastrophic for the Earl. For much of the play we see characters scraping with every ounce of will they can muster to establish their own sense of order out of the chaos that results from the opening events of the play. Some thrive in the chaos, some are overcome by it, and some endure the chaos in hopes of restoring order.
FAMILY DYNAMICS
In King Lear a father’s single question to his daughters topples a kingdom. At the top of the play, Lear turns to his daughters and asks “which of you shall we say doth love us most?” A question that is innocent enough, however, when the response of his youngest daughter does not meet the King’s expectations, his rash response topples the first domino in the series of dramatic events that unfold over the rest of the play.
Family relationships are at the center of the tragedies that unfold in King Lear. Lear and Gloucester both deeply misinterpret their children. Lear misjudges Cordelia’s honesty and banishes her, damaging his relationship with the only daughter who truly loves him. Gloucester lets his illegitimate son, Edmund, deceive him into believing the worst of his legitimate son, Edgar, which leads to Edgar’s banishment.
Cordelia’s relationship with her older sisters Goneril and Regan is broken from the start. As Lear’s favorite daughter, Goneril and Regan are deeply jealous of their younger sister. While Goneril and Regan seem allied at first in a unified front against their father, Lear, they ultimately fall victim to their own rivalries when they both fall in love with Edmund. The jealousy that ensues leads to deadly consequences.
NATURE
As director Tim Ocel observed in his opening remarks to the cast on the first day of rehearsal, “Nature is unfettered—there is no way to contain Nature. She has her own systems. We can protect ourselves from Nature, but we can’t change her.”
Both the natural world and human nature are on full display and the subjects of deep investigation in King Lear. From Lear’s “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks” to Edmund’s “Thou, Nature, art my goddess”, the characters in this play are constantly referencing and seeking their place in the Natural order. What is it about our natures that spur us forward to action? Are we accountable for our actions, or are our actions the inevitable result of cosmic and human nature? Do we control our nature or do the stars mark the path of our lives from the moment we are born into this world? Keep an ear open for just how many times characters in King Lear refer or speak directly to Nature.
IN THE REHEARSAL ROOM
Though rehearsals officially began in July, this production of King Lear had been on the mind of director Tim Ocel for YEARS. On the first day of rehearsal, with the entire cast and crew gathered at a large round table to read and discuss the play, Tim challenged us with the following nugget of wisdom that became a guiding principle for every day of rehearsal, “the play knows we must be patient.”
King Lear is a play of immense complexity rooted in the simplicity of each individual character’s wants and needs. In rehearsal room, we were constantly drawn back to the question “what does your character want, and what do they do to try and get it?” With that as a foundation to jump off of, the task of the actors was then to undergo the painstaking and meticulous process of combing through every syllable spoken on stage in order to find the answers to those questions through the words the characters speak. A test of patience if there ever was one.
The Lear rehearsal room was one of questions, introspection, and an encouragement to free play. It was of utmost importance to us that the story we developed was not simply a linear narrative but a cluster of relationships tumbling forward into action. Our hope was to build an undiluted world from which the actors could feed off of each other’s raw energy and simply play—one where the actors, as our director put it, “do not have to worry about selling the connective stuff” that unites the characters and trusting that the audience will make those connections for themselves.
We found ourselves unified by the joy that comes from that act of finding Truth—no matter how unpleasant that Truth may be. That pursuit pushed us not to simply present characters of Shakespearean high drama but to develop ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. For our approach to this play, the PEOPLE behind the titles and trappings of power were the most important aspect of this production. To that end, we did our best to patiently come back to the language over and over again. It is the people that language creates that we are so excited to present to you—we hope you enjoy King Lear!
Written by Ronald Román-Meléndez, 2024.
Photos by Liz Lauren.