Washington and Lee Shakespeare Society
Lexington, VA
March 31, 2012
Brad: A
Chelsea: *-
So, during my internet hunt for all of the Shakespeare plays, I just barely came across this production. Washington and Lee's Shakespeare Society produced it. It was student funded, directed, and acted. And it only ran for one weekend. It was definitely a project of passion for the actors and director. The theatre was small and the set was minimal . . .
BUT the cast's energy, effort, and ambition were enormous (though it doesn't appear that they used spell check on their posters (goverment?)).
This production reminded me of my short (thankfully) college acting career. My biggest role at C of C was that of Freddy the Bar Tender in Picasso at the Lapin Agile -- if your character's name is always accompanied by his occupation, you know it's a good role. I had to fake a Boston accent and grow mutton chops. I barely succeeded at either task. But I loved it.
Similarly, you could tell the folks in King Lear loved what they were doing too.
So, King Lear is about ingrate children. At the outset of the play, King Lear gives his two sycophant daughters his kingdom, but he disowns his third daughter because she refuses to lie about how much she loves him simply to get a piece of the pie. Meanwhile, Edmund the Bastard --- note: role with name tied to occupation --- the illegitimate son of Gloucester, a wealthy noble, devises a plan to turn his father against his brother, Edgar, in order to acquire his father's favor and wealth. As the play moves forward, Lear's two daughters, who now own the kingdom, decide they don't babysit King Lear who is slowly succumbing to dementia and going crazy. Since there are no good nursing homes near, the sisters fight over who will take care of him until Lear runs away during a bad storm. As the french attack King Lear's kingdom, the two evil daughters get caught up with Ed the Illegitimate. Through lies, deception, and trickery, the three plan to kill off the King, the good daughter, one of the evil daughter's husbands (so she can take a shot at Edmund), and anyone who gets in their way. By the end, Gloucester loses his eyes, all of the daughters are dead, Lear is dead, and Edmund is dead.
Note: a lot of dead bodies on stage. This summary gives no justice to the strength of this story, but the need for brevity is to blame for this loss, not me.
So, in this production, there were two stand-out actors: Gloucester and Edgar, though Edgar occasionally slipped into a Jack Sparrow imitation. I didn't really understand the set, but at the talk back after the play, the director briefly explained it.
YES, we stayed for the talk back, and I even asked a question. My question was this: where did the actors stand on the authorship question? My question immediately got a response from the cast. A majority of the cast ascribed to the Stratfordian theory, though two members confidently rejected it. One actress, the girl who played an excellent Kent, explained to me that the answer didn't matter.
Hmm... I guess I
disagree...
After the play, Chelsea and I wandered around Washington and Lee.
We tried to see Robert E. Lee's grave in this church, but it was locked.
We had to settle for seeing his horse's grave instead.
And yes, they buried the horse upside down. Then we saw a statue of me.
We also found the Virginia Military Institute.
Just for the record, that is a stunt double-chin. This is Virginia's version of the Citadel. It is directly next door to W & L. Imagine if the Citadel was across Calhoun Street from C of C. That is how VMI and W & L are set up.
Finally, we had a little snacky at a tapas bar in downtown Lexington.
On our way out of the restaurant, a quartet of middle-aged, mid-day wine drinkers stopped us to chat. They were great. We explained our project to them and they loved it. Our brief conversation reminded me how much I miss the friendly folks in the south. The last time someone stopped me in DC to chat I ended up with a ticket for talking on my cellphone while driving.
Brad the Bastard
*At the request of the editorial board (me), this grade has been redacted to prevent a defamation lawsuit by W & L.
