Seeing this production of King Lear was a very unique and fascinating experience that I likely will not have a chance to recreate. Watching a show in a foreign language that I have absolutely zero experience with was confusing at first, but as it went on gave me a deeper appreciation for the play as a whole.
Before leaving on this trip, we had read King Lear in class, so that we would at least have some idea of what was happening in the show when we would not be able to understand the dialogue itself. For the most part, this prior experience with the show helped immensely, as it gave me the knowledge that I needed to understand these characters and their different machinations and downfalls. However, reading the script beforehand ended up not being as valuable as it could have been, as the version we saw was a shortened version of the original play, only being an hour and a half and having five characters total. This made the story as a whole a bit harder to fully understand, as I was trying to determine what was happening and where we were in the play through the actions and facial expressions of the characters onstage. For the most part, the actors, none of which are experienced actors but rather people, did a pretty good job at conveying the story through these nonverbals, all things considered. However, as the show is a drama in nature combined with the inexperienced actors, there was less they could really do interpretatively to get the plot across, with them giving many monologues more or less straight with minimal movement. This worked well for the tone of the play, however did make it harder to understand than it would have been in English.
The design of the production as a whole was fairly decent. The sound was a bit too loud at many points throughout the play, distracting me from the action occasionally or just making me go deaf during certain scenes, like the thunder storm or the battle scene, but would have created a very nice soundscape if it was turned down a little bit. The sound helped to set the tone for the scenes and provide necessary context of what was happening, helping to ease the language barrier a bit. The lighting design similarly was very well done with some parts where it went a bit too far. Overall, the lighting was effective and again did a fair job at establishing mood during the dramatic scenes. However, there were a few moments, such as the thunder storm and battle scene again, where the lighting went a bit too far, as they began to strobe during these rather long scenes. The strobe effect would have been interesting, however the strobe frequency was so rapid and the color was so intense that it almost gave me a headache. The design overall was very cool and had great moments, especially those that called back to the Ukrainian origins of the show. The music seems to have been at least inspired by a Ukrainian Sopilka, a type of flute, the lighting at the end lit the stage in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, and the show began with showing the refugees leaving Ukraine on train.
Overall, seeing a show in a foreign language is a fascinating experience that I am glad to have had, and the performance’s symbolism and relevance is far from lost on me after watching this production.
Theatre in London U of A 