King Lear
The Story
In the play, King Lear is growing older and divides his kingdom amongst his three daughters, based on how they declare their love for him. His youngest daughter, Cordelia, who loves him most is banished due to her inability to share how much she cares for him. The eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, who both flattered Lear for control of the kingdom banish him from their homes, send him off into the storm, where the plot of Lear begins.
Meanwhile, a nobleman named Gloucester experiences problems when his illegitimate son, Edmund, tricks him into believing that his legitimate son, Edgar, is trying to kill him.
The play results in the death of many and a broken kingdom. Watch the video below for a more detailed summary of the play.
The Daughters
Something that King Lear does not address is the reason why the daughters push him away. In a novel adaptation of lear, A Thousand Acres, the writer reframes the daughters as victims of their father's sexual abuse and explains that is why the daughters act out against him the way that they do.
This novel was an inspiration for the approach of our version of Lear which explores the represssion, unexpressed grief, and trauma that the daughters are experiencing as they released their father into the storm.
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Our Characters
Though containing elements of the original script, Lear contains a limited amount of elements from the original script, including the lack of its titular character, King Lear. To the left is a diagram of our key characters and their relationships with one another within the plot of the original play.
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Character Map Key (relevant information to Lear only):
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Purple: Our characters
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Orange: Important characters that do not appear in Lear
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Yellow: Lear family line
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Blue: Gloucester family line
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