I cannot believe that the people we saw perform King Lear last night in Ukrainian weren’t professional actors. They were just a group of people from different walks of life who wanted to find solace in the theatre during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The director Viacheslav Yehorov chose to do King Lear because he feels that it is “very relevant today,” and with the themes of land disputes and power dynamics present in the play, I absolutely agree. This show is probably the most special one we have seen because it had a great production quality, but more importantly, a tremendous amount of heart.
The actual play was nowhere close to the length of the real King Lear. The story was trimmed down significantly to the main storyline between the King and his three daughters. I was a little disappointed by this because I really enjoyed the B plot of the original play with the King’s servants. In retrospect, it was probably good that the story was paired down because it would have been a lot more confusing with more characters. The story of the King dividing up his land between his daughters came across clearly even though it was in Ukrainian! A lot of that actually came from the actors as I was able to follow what I remembered of story based on how they reacted with each other in a scene. The tech for the show also helped me tremendously.
I really enjoyed the set design and sound for this show. I could immediately tell when the storm happened because the whole stage started flashing with thunder and lighting as the banners that made up the set swayed back and forth. The coolest tech moment was when the banners clashed against each other to represent a massive battle taking place. The sound and lighting also added so much to the intensity of the moment.
Some of my favorite acting moments were when Regan laughs hysterically at the end and any time the fool was on stage. The characters were so well performed and interesting, the minimal set was so well-utilized, and even though the story was told in Ukrainian, I really felt like I understood it!
ура!
Theatre in London U of A 