PRODUCTION King Lear [Lier zai ci]
Data Type：production background
Title：A Synopsis of CLT's King Lear
Source：King Lear Special Edition Program
Place：Taipei
Publisher：Contemporary Legend Theatre [Dangdai chuanqi juchang]
Date：2006
Language：English
Abstract：act by act summary
Act I.
Role: King Lear
Wu Hsing-Kuo enacts the role of King Lear in the insane condition. King Lear is running and shouting in the storm, and his past is haunting and tormenting his unstable mind. Chaos is disturbing the old Lear and gnawing at his aged as well as traumatic body and mind as he laments over his grievance.
Following the unique performing style of the great Peking Opera masters, Wu combines in this act both the movement of dance and the rhythm of the modern theatre.
Act II.
Role: Fool, dog, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, earl of Gloucester, Edmund, and Edgar.
If Act One is predominantly tragic in mood, then Act Two is basically comic. If Act One presents the pathetic style of “Old Gentlemen” in traditional Peking Opera, Act Two demonstrates the cynical way of playing of the “clown” in traditional Peking Opera.
In contrast to the loner Lear, with his passionate high-key singing and movement in Act One, the characters in Act Two are varied and heterogeneous. Wu thus has to transform himself, in the twinkling of an eye, into a totally different character. Altogether, he portrays nine characters in Act Two, when encompasses almost all the major roles in Shakespeare’s King Lear.
Act III.
Role: Wu Hsing-Kuo
King Lear is summoned from a remote place and appears like a ghost. He narrates to us the rising and vanishing of human lives in a ritualistic way. His elegant Peking Opera singing and movement present the changing nature of life and reflect the loss of his past.
Role: King Lear
Wu Hsing-Kuo enacts the role of King Lear in the insane condition. King Lear is running and shouting in the storm, and his past is haunting and tormenting his unstable mind. Chaos is disturbing the old Lear and gnawing at his aged as well as traumatic body and mind as he laments over his grievance.
Following the unique performing style of the great Peking Opera masters, Wu combines in this act both the movement of dance and the rhythm of the modern theatre.
Act II.
Role: Fool, dog, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, earl of Gloucester, Edmund, and Edgar.
If Act One is predominantly tragic in mood, then Act Two is basically comic. If Act One presents the pathetic style of “Old Gentlemen” in traditional Peking Opera, Act Two demonstrates the cynical way of playing of the “clown” in traditional Peking Opera.
In contrast to the loner Lear, with his passionate high-key singing and movement in Act One, the characters in Act Two are varied and heterogeneous. Wu thus has to transform himself, in the twinkling of an eye, into a totally different character. Altogether, he portrays nine characters in Act Two, when encompasses almost all the major roles in Shakespeare’s King Lear.
Act III.
Role: Wu Hsing-Kuo
King Lear is summoned from a remote place and appears like a ghost. He narrates to us the rising and vanishing of human lives in a ritualistic way. His elegant Peking Opera singing and movement present the changing nature of life and reflect the loss of his past.
