Photo Flash: Porters of Hellsgate's KING LEAR, 1/4- 2/9

January 4th, 2013 marks the opening of The Porters of Hellsgate's seventh season as they dive headlong into Shakespeare's seminal tragedy, King Lear. Militaristic in style, and set against an industrial, barren landscape, the Porters explore the destruction of family by greed and ambition, and blindness in the face of regret.

King Lear has divided his kingdom among his three daughters. Deceived by age and pride, he banishes his youngest daughter, blind to her devotion and the greed and cruelty of his two eldest. Lear is cast out by his eldest daughters into a raging storm and forced to keep company with fools and madmen, while Gloucester's bastard son Edmund schemes against his half-brother Edgar. Tension mounts as sanity is lost, sight is taken, and war breaks out for control of the kingdom in the Bard's stunning meditation on aging, family, and hysteria.

Starring Larry Cedar as King Lear, with Leon Russom as The Earl of Gloucester. Featuring: Michael Bigley, Dana DeRuyck, Sean Faye, Jamey Hecht, Jo D. Jonz, Gus Krieger, Christina MacKinnon, Kate O'Toole, Alex Parker, Tim Portnoy, Hilary Schwartz, and Jesse James Thomas.