Songs of Lear at BAM Fisher

Gathered in a semicircle on a bare stage, 10 women and men weave a frenzied tapestry of raw physicality and emotion: a Corsican chant wailed to the ocean, the visceral howl of funereal grief. Distilling Shakespeare’s great tragedy to its essence, Polish troupe Song of the Goat Theatre and director Grzegorz Bral make their BAM debut with the breathtaking song cycle Songs of Lear, a favorite among critics and audiences alike at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. King Lear’s storm of the soul—madness, despair, disappointment, love—becomes a feverish deluge of polyphonic sound, as these formidable vocalists harness the sheer power of the human body, voice, and spirit.