King Lear at Wandlebury Country Park

[altariel]

Tears begun streaming down my face and my froat akit.
Lissener hispert, ‘Whats the matter?’
I hispert back, ‘O what we ben! And what we come to!’
Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban

On Tuesday evening, I went with edge_of_ruin out to Wandlebury Country Park to see a terrific production of King Lear by in situ, a Cambridge-based experimental theatre company. The production took the form of a walk through the meadows and woodland of the park, as the sun went down and night encroached. The seven cast members led us through long grass, round the orchard, down the Roman Road, through the woods, and back out again into the sunset. The play wasn’t performed in full, the actors didn’t take specific parts, and the several set-pieces were interspersed with improvisation. The programme notes stated, “we’ve imagined a group of people who, perhaps as a result of some social or personal trauma, are attempting a re-enactment of a tragedy, the details of which they can barely remember.”

The result was amazing. Our first guide – who appeared to be a battlefield survivor – led us out into the meadow where the four male cast members, their backs turned to the audience, boomed out the division of the kingdom, like an Old Testament god setting history in motion. The three women came slowly towards us from out of the trees, flesh rising up from the grass. Then we were led towards the setting sun, to follow the disintegration of a self, or of a social body. At the start of the Roman Road, the three women, walking slowly backwards, began Lear’s curse; we were taken past them further up the road, stopping where Lear/the Fool was talking to himself. In time the curse caught up with us. People struggled to explain what it was they had seen that they could not find words for, using broken toys to try to communicate with us; suddenly remembered what they had seen, drawing eyes on the trees or placing pairs of shells or stones in the earth. Coming out from a clearing where a noose had been tied for the hanging that was going to happen/had happened, we finished in a darkening meadow, where the cast came towards us calling out singly for Cordelia.

A bold and imaginative production that made real demands on the audience, and I’m glad I followed where it took us.

(My disappointing pictures here.)

Comments

[happytune.livejournal.com]

Looks really excellent. Always inspiring to experience Shakespeare in ways that grab you afresh.

The Riddley Walker quote hit home for the time which we find ourselves as a nation...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That sounds wonderful. And Wandlebury is a perfect setting.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

That sounds like an amazing performance.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

cool!

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds absolutely wonderful! How I would have enjoyed that.

And your Riddley Walker quote brings tears to my eyes--especially in the context of a performance of King Lear. O what we ben. God, I love that novel.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Isn't it just one of the utter joys of long English summer evenings that one can do that sort of thing?... That sounds wonderful and different and fascinating.

(And I take it no-one's phone went off!)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It was great stuff. Performances tomorrow and Saturday, if you're inclined.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The quote was in the production notes too: having it in the back of my mind as we walked along a Roman road... *shivery*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

It was a brilliant evening. Thanks so much for winkling me out of myself. I keep thinking about it. And I'm reading "Riddley Walker"

A bold and imaginative production that made real demands on the audience, and I’m glad I followed where it took us. "Walking my riddels where ever theyve took me and walking them now on this paper the same..."

[shezan.livejournal.com]

This walking technique reminds me a bit of what Ariane Mnouchkine used to such fantastic effect in 1789 some thirty years ago. Sounds wonderful, anyway!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I see that the Globe on Tour's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream will be at the Bodleian Quad later in the summer...

ETA: No phone calls - although Simon Callow's phone went off during the Q&A at the end of his one-man show about Shakespeare last night!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I had not heard of her; how interesting.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It really was something special.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

That sounds intriguing. And the photographs show a beautiful setting for that event.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd managed some better pictures, I've really not done the place justice.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Ooh that might be fun - the BodQuad is very atmospheric of a summer evening.

Dying with laughter about Simon Callow. Who was on the phone, did he say?...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Callow simply looked sheepish, turned the phone off, and put it away.

We saw that Globe production at Emma last summer, and it was smashing.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad you came along :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It really was knockout. I haven't seen a performance of Lear before (missed the McKellen, alas, although watched it on on the telly).

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

It sounds wonderful! Sometimes with Shakespeare, bold and imaginative approaches really pay off.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It was stunning and very memorable. (And I've now recovered from all the insect bites that are an inevitable consequence of wandering around a field in the middle of summer!)

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Our local performance of Romeo and juliet on the green left me all bitten up, too. We can compare war wounds!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The things we do for art...

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

There is no true art without suffering! :D