February 2, 2010- King Lear is one of the most far-reaching artistic explorations of the human condition, with its tempestuous poetry shot through with touches of humor and moments of heart-rending simplicity. This production enters a vicious and visceral world where greed and ambition turns sister against sister, master against servant, and child against parent. Betrayal, lust, and murder follow…

 

Directed by Philip Knight, SRT’s “King Lear” features an international cast of performers. Opening on Wed. March 24th and running until March 28th, SRT’s spring season opener will be performed at the Ke Center for Contemporary Arts located at 613-B Kai Xuan Road near Yan’an West Road.

 

 

King Lear is the story of a man who makes a grave choice that sends him hurtling, reeling and struggling, from the heights of kingship to the earthly perspective of the poor and the mad.  From start to finish, Shakespeare has included so much story, so many questions, so many observations, perhaps so many opinions about who we are and what we do, that many consider it to be his grandest and darkest play.

 

When Lear’s youngest, Cordelia, refuses to take part in a show of love requested by the king during the official ceremony of his semi-retirement, he aborts his decision to split the kingdom in 3, leaving it instead to his elder daughters, Goneril and Regan and their husbands ? unleashing a mad battle for the remaining power of the throne, setting the stage for a bastard named Edmund to fashion the kingdom to his own desires and leaving the king himself out in the cold, in the middle of a raging storm.

 

This is only the first half of a story spun together from machination, treachery, betrayal and a desperate attempt to reclaim the torn kingdom and evade the promised end.

 

Performance Information

(In English with Chinese Subtitles)