Natalie Simpson as Cordelia and Antony Sher as King Lear in the 2016 Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear. Photo by Ellie
Kurttz via Royal Shakespeare Company.
The Bard in Brooklyn
HAPPENINGS
26
story by CRAIG HUBERT
William Shakespeare has been torn to shreds. His
works have been retold, reshaped and reconceptualized;
roles have been reversed and settings changed.
People keep coming back, again and again, because
there is so much in the original texts that mirrors our
contemporary world, for better or worse. The work is
always changing with time; there is always something
new to discover.
Take “King Lear,” for instance. The Bard’s great tragedy
about hubris, family and death will be staged at
the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a production by
the Royal Shakespeare Company, beginning April
7. This will be the third time in eight years the storied
institution will bring “King Lear” to the stage,
and each time it’s been very different — not only
in the presentation but also the interpretation. The
play means something different now in the current
political climate than it did four years ago. Director
Gregory Doran is said to have been influenced by
the European Union referendum, but in the United
States it’s easy to see other, more obvious parallels
in the story of a leader’s power dividing and corrupting
those around him.
A similar resonance can be found in “The Winter’s Tale,”
which opened at the Theatre for a New Audience on
March 13 (and will be followed by the comedy “Twelfth
Night,” opening on May 10). This one deals, once again,
with an irrational and powerful man — sense a theme? —
and the ramifications of his paranoia-induced jealousy.
How this relates to a contemporary audience pretty
easily speaks for itself.
This is what brings people back, no matter if the
production is slick and contemporary or, sometimes
contentiously for an inexperienced audience, stubbornly
traditional. Theater is booming in Brooklyn
right now and Shakespeare is arguably at its center.
His work continues to attract crowds, deservedly so,
and for a reason: These are the stories that shape our
lives, whether we know it or not, and can be found all
around us. There will always be a king and there will
always be a fool.