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King Lear as the Vikings would have done it.
By: Mark Andrew Lawrence Feb. 14, 2007
Winner of the 2003 Mississauga Arts Award (MAA) for Best Emerging Performance Group, Forward Theatre proudly presents William Shakespeare's King Lear at Mississauga
"Lear has always been one of my favourite tragedies and I wanted to try a take a different approach to it." says director, Tommy Taylor. "The Vikings considered it amongst the most honourable of deaths to die in battle and they had an incredible sense of loyalty and family. These ideas of pride and loyalty are of course taken to the extreme in King Lear and are quite large themes in the show. It is at times an extremely violent story and we use a number of axes, spears, shields, and swords in the show, like the Vikings would have." The show is still performed in the classical text, but edited down to a 90 minute run time, with a number of other Norse inspired twists. The costuming and weapons are of course all Viking in appearance, but the theme also continues into aspects of the show as well. King Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia (Jamie Mason) sings a song entirely in Icelandic and there are number of salutes and cheers in the language as well. The look, music and sounds of the show will transport audiences to a frozen, far off land and give the well known tale of King Lear a whole new perspective.
Playing Lear himself is Irish-born actor Charles Foster. Foster studied drama at the Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama in Sidcup Kent West End 's production of Playboy of the Western World. Two seasons at Shakespeare in the Park led to numerous film and TV parts at BBC, CBC, Granada TV, ITV, CFTO TV and stage roles in Canada Mississauga
Forward Theatre's productions of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth explored new, and in some cases radical, ideas on these ageless tales, and like Hamlet will, did it while keeping Shakespeare's original classical text. "People are eager to see something new in Shakespeare, they know the stories and want to explore new possibilities within those stories" says Taylor
King Lear runs Fri. Feb 23 and Sat. Feb 24, 2007
At Mississauga
Both nights at .
Tickets are $20 and $15 for students and seniors;
They can be purchased by calling:
905-306-6000 or 1-888-805-8888.
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