I am SMRT!
Seriously, kids. This weekend, I felt so stupid. On Saturday night, I did my volunteering gig at the Folger Shakespeare Library. It's a theatre, too, and basically, when I volunteer, I usher for plays. This time, the play was King Lear. Which I have not read, nor have I ever seen it before.
And? Guess what. I did NOT understand what was going on! At all! Well, there was a king, and at one point, he took off his robe and all he had on was a little pouch in the front. That's it. I don't know why, though. I'd like to blame my lack of understanding on the fact that I had a partially obstructed view, and I could not see the middle of the stage, but honestly, I doubt that was it.
At intermission, where my friend Erin and I sold sodas, snacks, and wine (my favorite thing to do during intermission), the house manager came up to us. I asked him if he needed us to stay or if we could go home. He said go home. So we didn't even see the second act. That's OK. I don't think it would have cleared up my comprehension issues.
Am I the same girl who has been reading Shakespeare since she was 13? I'm beginning to wonder...
Libellés : Ma Vie
4 Comments:
King Lear is not my favorite Shakespeare! Even reading along with the book and watching the BBC version, I still didn't quite get it. Nudity in King Lear? Yikes.
--Erin
I guess the nudity would have been indicative of his madness at one point (or rather pretty much through the whole thing). It's funny how nakedness = nuttiness quite regularly in classic theatre.
Lear is pretty dense - We studied it in yr 12 English Lit at school so it's a bit hazy now. The whole concept of what Lear was trying to do (ie: massage his ego by manipulating his daughters into competing in a who-loves-daddy-the-most competition) seemed such a logically flawed thing to do in the first place, that the tragedy was kind of lost on me.
I wasn't my Lit teacher's favourite student - I also declared that Romeo and Juliet were a pair of spineless saps much to his horror!
King Lear is my favorite Shakespeare as well (though I am admittedly not the biggest Shakespeare fan) I can see how it would be a little hard to follow if you were distracted.
yeah, I got that the sisters hated each other & were in competition over the dad. but that's about all I got. and something about an illegitimate brother.
I really, really did not understand it.
Enregistrer un commentaire
<< Home