Category Archives: King Lear
Shakespeare in the Dark’s King Lear
“The younger rises when the old doth fall.”
For those of you who do not know, Shakespeare in the Dark is a completely student-run theatre club based at the College of William and Mary. Members propose shows (and not all of them have to be Shakespeare – they’ve been known to do spinoffs) and vote on which ones to do. In total, they produce three shows per academic year. One Fall, one Winter, and one Spring.
This Fall’s production is King Lear, the chilling tale of betrayal and ambition which has been set in the 1960’s. A brief summary:
King Lear is really old, so he wants to divide his kingdom between his three daughters. He asks them which of them loves him most. The first daughter says she really loves him and gets a third of the land. The second daughter says she loves him even more and gets the next third. But the third daughter is more honest and says she loves him no more or less than her bond.
This makes him angry and he disowns her, marrying her off to the King of France.
Meanwhile, the Gloucester family has troubles of its own. Gloucester is one of the chief advisors to the king, and he has two sons. Edgar, the elder, and Edmund, the younger and a bastard. Edmund is unhappy with his lot in life and wants to get all of Edgar’s luscious inheritance, so he frames Edgar for treason. Edgar is forced to flee.
This all happens within the first two scenes.
I don’t want to give away the ending, but it’s really bloody. It is a Shakespeare tragedy after all.
Anyway, I auditioned and was cast as Edgar. Huzzah! I can say from an insider’s perspective that the show is really awesome, but I’m kind of biased.
Still, you don’t have to take my word for it. Just watch this lovely trailer, made by a SitD alum, to get all the persuasion you need:
The trailer gives me shivers every time. Incidentally, the music is “Hope in the Air” by Laura Marling. A really good song.
The show goes up on October 12th, 14th, and 15th, which is a Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday at 8:00 PM in the Commonwealth Auditorium. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students with a WM ID.
Thanks for bearing with my shameless self-promotion. But seriously, come see this play, it’s phenomenal.
<3, Junior Varsity.
Red Shirt Podcast #4: Harrison Ford, Bitches
Hey everybody. This week’s podcast is filled with hilarity as we fail to get into our classes on time, argue over our favorite jedis, and enjoy our nerdy pop culture references. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, click the links below to find out 😛
The Red Shirt Crew Blog and Podcast Network 