The Bard’s classic tragedy of family feuds and power struggles opens at the Crescent Theatre on November 16 when King Lear takes to the Ron Barber Studio stage. But don’t expect just another run-of-the-mill production. Even if you think you know the play inside out, you’re bound to find something new to enjoy.
This classic tale of political power plays and personal ambition is timeless, but director Jaz Davison was keen to find a way to make this production even more relevant to today’s audiences – while still remaining true to the text. So she drew inspiration from the book “Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare” by Will Tosh, as well as her own lived experience.
“If you had a roomful of people, say 30 or so, you can bet that there would be at least three people identifying as gay, non-binary and/or trans.”
With this thought in mind, Davison sought to interpret the script through a new queercentric lens, introducing more LGBTQIA elements to the cast of familiar characters: Albany as a closeted gay man; Oswald as non-binary; Edgar as a transgender man. But she has also been careful to approach with subtlety and sensitivity this reflection of the everyday diversity by which we’re all surrounded – even if it goes unacknowledged.
“Are my actors ‘playing’ these characters in a way that might blatantly appear that they identify as this? No. They are ‘being’,” she says.
As for the actors ‘being’ these characters, a full half of the company will be taking to a Crescent Theatre stage for the very first time. Reflecting the Crescent’s practice of welcoming new members at all times and finding them exciting opportunities, 6 of this cast of 12 are ‘Crescent first-timers’: Zoe Frances as Regan; Hannah Roche as Cordelia and The Fool; Maariyah Najeeb as Edgar; James Commander as Oswald/ Warden; Logan Grendon as Duke of Cornwall; and Aaron Shelton, who has also served as Fight Captain for the production, as Edmund.
Davison has also given the titular King a new twist. “Most productions of King Lear show a monarch who is ready to die, slips into madness almost easily and does, in fact, die upon the death of their favourite. My Lear wants to live, but also wants to see to it that his kingdom stays intact by handing it over – but with the desire to oversee. This is where his own blindness comes into play, by not ‘seeing better,’ as Kent admonishes, and letting his ego get the better of him, he finds his kingdom on the brink of ruin.”
She is also staging the production in probably the least common theatrical format, traverse, which brings added intimacy and tension to the experience, especially in a studio setting, and, adding to the intensity, this crisp new adaptation rockets along.
Despite so many new elements, however, director Jaz Davison has not lost sight of what it is that draws people to the play. “All in all, it is a tragic tale to which people have been drawn by their own flawed familial relationships. We keep hoping it will turn out better – but sometimes the pains are too deep and the damage too sharply done.”
King Lear runs from 16-30th November. Tickets are on sale now at www.crescent-theatre.co.uk or call our Box Office on 0121 643 5858 (concessions are available).