3.1, 3.3: The Unspoken

Most of the time, Shakespeare lays it all out for you. The language is archaic and the poetry can sometimes obscure the direct meanings, but once you get past that stuff, it's all right there on the page. Lear's storm scenes and the blinding of Gloster are like that. But once in a while, a modest little scene will present you with all sorts of possibilities for Stanislavsky's favourite pastime: subtext.

Tonight we worked on two short scenes with ample subtext, and since nobody onstage was being tortured or killed, we could afford to linger on the hidden relationships, and find ways to bring them out into the open. It's loads of fun. 3.1 is mostly occupied with Gloster's blinding, but before he gets hauled onstage, there's a half-page scene that's bristling with little exchanges like this one:

Goneril: Farewell sweet Lord, and Sister.
Regan: Edmund, farewell.

Goneril and Edmund are exiting together, and Regan (who has previously taken a tumble with the Bastard) sees her lover--and perhaps her only chance to escape from her bear of a husband-- about to fall into her sister's web. Subtext abounds: Regan longing for Edmund, Goneril smirking at her feeble sister (or examining her new prize), Cornwall watching his wife hungering for a low-life Bastard, and so on.

3.3 is more blatant, but we still found a lot of interesting sub-currents to the Goneril/Edmund and Goneril/Albany relationships. Allan and Beverly are building a lot of genuinely interesting material for their unhappy couple. I'd be surprised if there has ever been another Albany in history whose love for Goneril, and pain at watching her sink into damnation, is so palpable. The scene also pretty much blocked itself, which is a real perk these days.