L.ear at Dixon Place

In a world filled with cacophony, we seem to be lost in the game of communication. Languages we use fail to express our true selves, but rather have become the dangerous tool to gain personal benefits. Language fails to bridge the talkers but rather pushes ourselves in the game of telling truth from false, which coerces us to be isolated, and eventually to the state of madness. Bearing such insight, Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li, the Associate Artistic Director of the Living Theatre, attempts to examine the madness in language through L.EAR, the adaptation of Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” L.EAR will be presented by Dixon Place as a work-in-progress production on Friday, January 26th at 7:30pm at Dixon Place, at 161A Chrystie Street.

Continuing his journey of experimentation after BLIND — an ambitious production impresses with its intellect and imaginative presentations, by Theatre Is Easy, Director Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li sets L.EAR beyond sheer storytelling of a great tragedy. Instead, Yueh-Yeh Li deconstructs Lear’s relationship with his three daughters in a trial scene to examine the complexity of language and communication, and how it reflects the current political state. Such staging, through repetition and the use of multiple languages, attempts to reclaim the language use of the Artaudian era.

L.EAR features Tom Walker as King Lear, Maite Uzal as Goneril, Abbey Jasmine Watt as Regan, Chun Cho as Cordelia, and Kevin Lynch as Kent and Duke of Albany. Toney Brown works as Dramaturg and Assistant Director, Yung-Chin Sunny Chang as Sound Designer, and Yi-Chung Chen as Lighting Designer. You-Shin Chen advises on the scenic design.

L.EAR, following the story of “King Lear,” tells the series of events of how Lear divides his kingdom between his three daughters. After Lear’s request for a show of love, Cordelia, refusing to be hypocritical as her other sisters are with the sugar-coated words, is banished. Such decision leads eventually to Lear’s madness and the death of his beloved daughter, Cordelia.

Director Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li earned his Masters in Performance Studies from New York University. He works as a director, playwright, performer, and has created productions addressing sexuality, philosophy, and politics to give his unique perspectives on time, space, and power relations. Currently, Dennis is the Associate Artistic Director of the Living Theatre.

For ticket and more information, please visit http://dixonplace.org/performances/l-ear/