Themes: Commanding Love
Sometimes the best answers are right in front of you.
I was discussing Lear over dinner with my wife, Sheila, who is an English PhD student and knows a thing or two about Shakespeare. I confessed to her that I was still hung up on some basic thematic issues, and was not looking forward to the false confidence which I would have to put on when I talked about the play to my actors.
My quandary, I explained, began with the first scene. Where does Lear err? I've been discussing the blocking-balance thematically, as though it's obvious that everything goes haywire the moment Lear steps away from his throne. But Sheila disagreed; she thought Lear's error lay not in his decision to abdicate, but in his treatment of Cordelia after "nothing" is spoken.
We bandied these details about for awhile, and then I tried a dirty trick, introducing a quote which I'd found somewhere (I think it was somewhere in "The King Lear Perplex", an anthology of criticism). Paraphrasing heavily, it said, "The first lesson in Lear is 'don't give away your land.' The second, more subtle, lesson is, 'if you are going to give away your land, don't expect to be coddled. Sacrifice is sacrifice.'"
This quote brought the thematic spotlight back onto Lear's abdication. But Sheila (wise to my tricks) replied with an interpretation that was both more astute and more easily conveyable to actors. She said that if a single message could be extracted from Lear, it would be "You can't command love."
That's pretty brilliant. Lear spends the whole play reassessing what he, as a quasi-King and pseudo-Father, can and cannot control. His great tirade to the storm has been compared to the myth of Canute, the King who tried to command the tides (and got his feet wet for his troubles).
In the end, Lear becomes a beggar, a transient, and ultimately a prisoner--someone with no control over his destiny. And that's when he gets the love he sought.
I think it can even be made to work with the balance-blocking, if I shift my focus slightly to think of it not in terms of Lear's abdication, but in terms of Cordelia's absence. The three sisters created a balance, and when Lear banishes one of them, the balance is upset.
It requires a lot more thinking, but I like the way it feels already. Love, love, love. All you need is love. Can't buy me love.
I was discussing Lear over dinner with my wife, Sheila, who is an English PhD student and knows a thing or two about Shakespeare. I confessed to her that I was still hung up on some basic thematic issues, and was not looking forward to the false confidence which I would have to put on when I talked about the play to my actors.
My quandary, I explained, began with the first scene. Where does Lear err? I've been discussing the blocking-balance thematically, as though it's obvious that everything goes haywire the moment Lear steps away from his throne. But Sheila disagreed; she thought Lear's error lay not in his decision to abdicate, but in his treatment of Cordelia after "nothing" is spoken.
We bandied these details about for awhile, and then I tried a dirty trick, introducing a quote which I'd found somewhere (I think it was somewhere in "The King Lear Perplex", an anthology of criticism). Paraphrasing heavily, it said, "The first lesson in Lear is 'don't give away your land.' The second, more subtle, lesson is, 'if you are going to give away your land, don't expect to be coddled. Sacrifice is sacrifice.'"
This quote brought the thematic spotlight back onto Lear's abdication. But Sheila (wise to my tricks) replied with an interpretation that was both more astute and more easily conveyable to actors. She said that if a single message could be extracted from Lear, it would be "You can't command love."
That's pretty brilliant. Lear spends the whole play reassessing what he, as a quasi-King and pseudo-Father, can and cannot control. His great tirade to the storm has been compared to the myth of Canute, the King who tried to command the tides (and got his feet wet for his troubles).
In the end, Lear becomes a beggar, a transient, and ultimately a prisoner--someone with no control over his destiny. And that's when he gets the love he sought.
I think it can even be made to work with the balance-blocking, if I shift my focus slightly to think of it not in terms of Lear's abdication, but in terms of Cordelia's absence. The three sisters created a balance, and when Lear banishes one of them, the balance is upset.
It requires a lot more thinking, but I like the way it feels already. Love, love, love. All you need is love. Can't buy me love.
posted by Scott Sharplin at 7:59 p.m.
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