King Lear

[aunt_zelda]

Wow.

I'm sort of still in shock. 

Edmund had me from his first soliloquy. He had this deliciously evil confidence about him, like "… hey, watch this, I'm gonna do something evil … heh heh, did you see that? *smirk*" You could feel the audience perk up whenever he showed up.

This play HURT. It hurt when the Fool was beaten up by a mob and dragged around and tied up and hanged. It hurt when Cordelia said she didn't blame her dad at all. It hurt when Lear said "let me not be mad" and talked to invisible dogs and stuff. It hurt when Kent made with the puppy dog eyes as he was wont to do. It hurt when Edgar put on a variety of accents to fool his father and led him around the stage. It hurt when Gloucester thought he'd jumped from the cliff and fainted and woke up to find himself still alive and hated that he was alive. It hurt when Gloucester and Edgar clung to Lear on the side of the stage. It hurt … but it hurt so GOOD.

The fight scenes were great fun. Broadswords FTW! Daggers and punches and kicks galore! I loved the hell outta the fight scenes. It was nice to see fight choreography that I hadn't been a part of for once. 

Oh Kent. Kent Kent Kent Kent KENT. Right up there with Horatio. I want to play him someday. Loyal to the EXTREME, kind of a dick, an Only Sane Man, ready to follow his master into death … yeah, I'd really like to play him. 

Oswald was played by a woman with a very evil smirk. It worked surprisingly well. The scene where Kent is threatening her outside the castle was pretty uncomfortable, though. Then she showed how she could totally kick ass and be a really evil bitch and I didn't feel sorry for her anymore. 

WTF was up with that servant who tried to intervene at Gloucester's eye-gouging? I'd call it a Big Lipped Alligator Moment but he's mentioned in another scene. 

During the bit where Gonerill and Edmund were macking, the audience was silent because of how squicky it all was, and this guy in the back let out this really loud lasciviously laugh and then there was a beat and then the whole audience started tittering. It was a perfect moment. 

I actually screamed when Gloucester's eyes were taken out. First the actor was facing upstage and Cornwall kicked his eye or something, I didn't see it very well because I was hiding my face and clinging to my mother's shoulder at the time. Then the actor's face was bloody and he got dragged center stage and Regan clawed out his other eye and ew ew ew ew eeeeeeeew I won't be sleeping tonight.

Edgar pretty much stole every scene he was in. I've seen the actor in a lot of things before, and he's always beyond fantastic, and this was no different. There were so many scenes that could have become narmy that he made sad or serious or both. Well, they were still funny, but in that way that you'd hate yourself for laughing. Especially the scenes were he was pretending to be crazy. Or was he crazy? I don't know, but the actor did an amazing job. I would have found the scene where he tore off his shirt and mussed up his hair and started rubbing dirt all over himself kinda sexy … except that I know he's, ahem, playing for my father's team, shall we say, and that detracted from the sexy. That and the character's intense terror and desperation at being hunted down for something he didn't even do. 

The relationship between Edgar and Gloucester was intensely intriguing to me. I want to study it.

Now I want to go watch Ran.

(If looks could kill that woman behind me who refused to stop rustling with her program would be DEAD DEAD DEAD. As would the man who kept messing with his program to my side. And the person I couldn't locate behind me with the REALLY LOUD JEWELRY. I nearly reached over and slapped the ones I'd located, but that would have made noise and distracted from the play.)

Best birthday present EVER.