King Lear – Ian McKellan

Tonight the woman selling tickets at the theatre said apologetically, “We only have seats in the front two rows. Everything else is sold out.”

“Not one single anywhere?”

“No.”

I took a side seat, isle B, deciding I could just lay my head back and live with the consequences of not buying a ticket online earlier.

I had done the work of studying the plot again, figuring out the politics of the war that was going on, and even done a test on what I had read. Why on earth did I do that?

The show was terrific. I forgot that I had such a horrible seat. Every flicker of an eyelid or twitch in the corner of a mouth of an actor was a thrill tonight. I was thinking about Shakespeare’s women in this play, and their portrayal in the show. Cordelia, dressed in army fatigues? I wondered on my way home if I thought that strengthened her character. And I was thinking again about the riddle she presents to her father, really. Wondering, why, if she thought he was growing old and was a bit demented, didn’t she give him a clearer answer to his question.

I liked the costuming of the women – Kent as well as Lear’s three daughters. I did spot a pearl necklace on one that looked similar to one in my own closet – one with a large decorated clasp and three strings of pearls. I don’t know why I couldn’t get my eyes off of that.

“Tom” was so interesting, putting Gloucester’s arm on his shoulder so many times. Chilling lines and such acts of love, both physically and with thoughts that he would verbalize.  "Forget and forgive."  I have no idea why that one struck me with such a bolt of thunder.

You know that last scene with the knife and the stick, how the fight went on and on. I was thinking, how do they do this? Maintain suspense when we all know how the play is going to end.  And then I went back to watching and hoping that the play would end differently.

My theatre crowd was a strange one – not the opera crowd of white hair, walkers and canes. I was surprised at the youthful look on people’s faces – maybe the 30ish crowd. Even a cowboy with a Stetson, boots and bolo tie. No one I knew though, except an English professor and his wife. Once I went to the theatre with Rebecca and it was booked by a school class, but this wasn’t the case here.

Ian McKellen nailed it with his portrayal of an old man. I should feel comforted thinking that the character of a demented man is not one I will have to carry in later life. But there was a raw nerve touched when Lear stated that he was 4 score years old. That sounds pretty young to me.

Arta