 ‘KING LEAR’ by William Shakespeare adapted by Andrew Loudon and Emma Reeves
MISE EN SCENE by Lucille O'Flanagan
You may also like to print the document called « les personnages » which explains who are the characters in the piece and summarizes the action of each character also the document « synopsis » (French and/or English) which briefly relates all the action of the play – scene by scene. And « history » which briefly talks about the sources of Shakespeare’s KING LEAR.
An audio CD is available of our shortened version of KING LEAR by William Shakespeare, the CD is sent to you by post with a free text copy of the script. The script may also be downloaded FREE from this website – you may photocopy this text to use in class.
Here follows my Director’s Notes on the play. I look forward to your comments after you have seen the show. With best wishes, Lucille
 Adaptation
The Main Themes
Lear - Tyrant Or Madman?
Cordelia - Heroic Or Stupid?
Gloucester - Destiny vs. Free Will
One Motivation For The Actions Of Edmunds
Blindness
Death
Real Life Characters
The Two Ugly Sisters
Lear And His 100 Knights
The Fool
When Is The Play Set?
Being Good - Edgard The Survivor
Adaptation
The original piece has been cut and adapted, leaving out the story of Kent (loyal follower of Lear) and all the courtiers. We have not featured Oswald nor the husbands of Regan and Goneril (The Dukes of Albany and Cornwall). Although the two husbands do feature as puppets on the stage – which in some respect they are.
[Back to the top]
The Main Themes
We deal with the two families : King Lear and his three daughters (Goneril, Regan and Cordelia). Earl of Gloucester and his two sons (Edgar and Edmund). The entire cast is:
. Actor one – Lear, Edmund, Torturer, the Chorus
. Actor two – Cordelia, Goneril, The Fool, Gloucester
. Actor three – Regan, King of France, Edgar
[Back to the top]
Lear - Tyrant Or Madman?
When one thinks of THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE there are two elements that immediately springs to mind ; the storm and Lear’s senility. The storm is a physical and theatrical representation of the increasing madness of the King. He is on a journey where he loses himself in terms of status, family, followers, palace and even food, clothing and shelter but he finds himself in terms of his humanity. A touching line expresses the pity he feels for others who have nothing and are maybe, like him, without a roof over their heads in a storm-filled night. As their King he reflects « I have ta’en too little care of this ».
Is he responsible for his actions or is it his illness ? I feel that a modern interpretation would have to say that the decease Alzheimer’s is a cruel and inexorable malady. It produces changes of mood and temper, which are poignantly expressed by William Shakespeare. Lear refers to the « Mother » rising in his breast and some critics have suggested that Lear becomes more of a woman through the piece. Mother in this context refers to an Elizabethan term for a softening of the brain.
Shakespeare knew that Lear does not appear a sympathetic character in the opening scene ; Lear drives away his youngest and most loyal daughter and believes his obviously older daughters’ flattery. He flies into a fury at a moment’s notice and uses language which is shocking even today.
In our production we are exploring the journey that the audience will take with us and with William Shakespeare – they see the tyrant king become the old, tired and terribly sick man. At the end they may look back and realise the early stages of the decease were present and visible - but like the characters on the stage, Lear’s actions were not at that time attributed to his sickness.
[Back to the top]
Cordelia - Heroic Or Stupid?
Lear tells us that he was hoping to set up his rest and pass the remainder of his days with his daughter Cordelia. Possibly referring to Cordelia’s nursing of Lear. Does Cordelia know that Lear has a degenerative decease ? Is that why she cannot play his ‘who loves me most’ game ? She is harshly punished if this is the case. Her action in keeping quiet is surely therefore heroic, I believe she suspects he is becoming senile but she cannot denounce her father before the court and so is banished. I am not in agreement with the directors and critics who argue that Cordelia is simply shy. She is far too capable of heroic action as we shall see later.
The story then takes us along with it ; through the turbulent waters of the storm, the lies and deceit and the final coming together again of Cordelia and her father. Here again Cordelia is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for her father, when she could easily escape prison – she does not and is hanged there.
[Back to the top]
Gloucester - Destiny vs. Free Will
The sub-plot which mirrors the story of Lear and his daughters is that of Gloucester and his sons. In the original play one finds many references by Gloucester to the stars and astrology – he seems to believe that all that happens to mankind is somehow at the behest of destiny. Edmund mocks this attitude in one of the most famous of all speeches the ‘stand up for bastards’ speech. I find it interesting that Gloucester should believe in fate so fully when in fact he is largely reasonable for his actions.
[Back to the top]
One Motivation For The Actions Of Edmunds
In a scene, which we are not presenting in this adaptation, Gloucester speaks in a vulgar manner to Kent about Edmund, saying that his son is a ‘whoreson (who) must be acknowledged’ (thus making a joke of his illegitimate status). He goes on to say that there was ‘good sport’ at his conception that Edmund’s mother ‘was fair’ – whilst this is not a good reason for his actions it does provide an interesting element to the character of Edmund.
Gloucester is clearly written to be a good man but it is hard to feel sympathy for him as he is duped so easily by Edmund and orders the arrest of his other son Edgar. Gloucester we feel should also do more to stop Regan and Goneril from taking over his house. He does nothing to stop them barring the doors against the King – when the night is so bad. But we see he is troubled and through him we see the iron rule of the two daughters (and the power of their husbands).
At which point, Gloucester talks to Edmund about a letter he has from friends in France, he says that he cannot show the letter but that there are armies on the move to reinstate Lear. Edmund of course does not want this – he has his sights on his father’s lands and title - so Edmund betrays his own father. And in this moment, in one of the most shocking and difficult of all scenes on the English stage .. the blinding of Gloucester, the Earl of Gloucester finally shows his courage by not telling his torturers about the French army and wins our sympathy.
[Back to the top]
Blindness
It is during his torture and ultimate blinding that Gloucester is told the truth about who betrayed him. He too is pushed from his house “let him smell his way to Dover” and ends up wandering the heath.
Lear is blind to his daughters (the good and the bad) and was blind to the poor whilst a monarch. He gains his vision through his terrific experiences.
Gloucester is blinded physically for his ‘blindness’ to see the truth and in the act of being blinded finally ‘sees’ more clearly.
[Back to the top]
Death
Both Lear and Gloucester seemingly die of a broken heart, once reunited with their ‘wronged’ offspring. We could say that a stroke is the most likely medical explanation for such a death in Lear’s case and either a heart attack or possibly as a result of his injuries in the case of Gloucester.
[Back to the top]
Real Life Characters
If I seem to be rather too prosaic in my treatment of these extraordinary characters it is because I firmly believe that all characters must live their lives. As a director one looks at the text to draw the character and then bring him or her to life. We look at what the character does and then at what the character says. Finally the actor and the director will work on the mystery and the journey the character takes. The actor then works on the best way to interpret all this with the maximum of « actors truth » and his « through thought » (if he is a method actor). When all that is done – the director manipulates the whole to create his/her ‘mise en scene’.
[Back to the top]
The Two Ugly Sisters
What do we see when we look at Goneril and Regan ? Do we see the money grabbing cruel two ugly sisters from Cinderella ? Or do we see a shadow of how we might behave in a similar situation ? Goneril and Regan discuss the banishment of Cordelia and say of Lear « he had but slenderly known himself » - so they were aware of King Lear’s increasing instability. They are worried that he will treat them in a similar way in the future. The two woman seem to be daughters first but they each wind up the other to a greater degree of cruelty toward their father.
But Lear gave away his kingdom « in good time you gave it », yet seems to want to continue life as before. He is not satisfied to be ruled by his daughters.
[Back to the top]
Lear And His 100 Knights
There is a scene much underwritten regarding the « riotous knights » of Lear. In the original we see the argument between Kent and Oswald and see that Kent is put into the stocks (wooden restraints for his legs – used for petty criminals and as such it would have been a huge insult to Kent and his master, the King). But we do not see much of Lear’s knights themselves, so we are left to decide how much is true – are they causing trouble in the house of Lear’s daughters ? It is clear that Regan and Goneril exaggerate the behaviour of the knights and use this as a reason to argue with Lear. They are hoping to make him mad (angry) knowing that he cannot help himself as he is already half-mad.
At this point, the sisters have wound themselves up to the point where they can do the unthinkable – they bar the doors against Lear and leave an old man to the mercies of a cold windy miserable stormy night.
[Back to the top]
The Fool
If Gloucester is the counter-point to Lear and represents in double the strong blinding imagery, who is the Fool ? In a play with so many people telling lies, deceiving each other and either being mad or pretending to be mad. The Fool is a character who is the ‘everyman’. He represents us. He represents what we might want to say to Lear ; “wake up and smell the coffee old man – your first daughter was good and honourable and these two are cruel”. In his archaic way, this is exactly what the Fool says to Lear. But he does it in jokes, riddles and songs in the manner of a court jester – a character well known and loved down the ages in England.
[Back to the top]
When Is The Play Set?
Also it should be noted that the character of a court jester sets the original play in antiquity and not as a contemporary play for Shakespeare’s times. In other words, Shakespeare wanted his audience to believe they were seeing a play set in the generation before Merlin the Magician and King Arthur. The people in France and England have often looked back to the days of chivalry and the Knights of the Round Table and to set a play in this time (or just before) attaches to the play a romanticism, which is useful when telling an horrific fairy tale.
Once upon a time, long long ago, there lived a king and he had three daughters …
. Our piece is also set in ‘no time’ – in a futuristic pre history.
. The decor is metal, the costumes are fantastical and the words are 90% Shakespeare.
. See the initial costume designs on another page of this website.
. See the metal décor, produced on computer, on yet another page on this website.
[Back to the top]
Being Good - Edgard The Survivor
Edgar seems gullible in the scene where Edmund convinces him that their father is in a fury with Edgar. He is so convinced that he hides in Edmund’s rooms and eventually is driven from their home. He then hears that the police are after him and decides to disguise himself as a madman.
No accident that Shakespeare here gives us a man pretending to be mad, he was blinded to the truth by his brother but, through his own actions Edgar becomes the tool of his own revenge (in killing Edmund) and is in fact the sole survivor of the main characters ; presumably inheriting the land after the deaths of his father, brother, king, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia ! His final speech over the dead bodies of Lear and Cordelia demonstrate clearly that here is a true and honest man who is whole of mind and able to lead a country.
[Back to the top] |
Accueil >> King Lear >> Dossier pédagogique >> La mise en scène 
