King Lear

Watching “King Lear” in Ukrainian was an interesting experience.  We read King Lear for class so I was very familiar with the script which did help me during the show.  However, there were many changes to the story that made it difficult to understand.  I was under the impression that this would be a normal production of “King Lear” but instead this was a unique script.  There were only 5 characters: King Lear, the Jester, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia.  It seems that a lot of the action with other characters was either cut or it happened off-screen and was explained sometime on screen.  I was able to follow some parts.  I could follow the opening easily and I also understood when Lear was kicked out by his daughters and when he was monologuing about his mistakes.  Overall, I believe that I was roughly able to follow the story however if I had not read and studied the script I definitely would have no idea what was happening.  I think they captured the overall essence of the play but I still didn’t enjoy it.  While I do appreciate the thought put into it and admire the hard work of everyone involved, the fact is that I do not speak Ukrainian.  The point of art is to convey a message and how can I receive that message if it’s in a language I can’t understand.  Many art forms like painting, dance, and performance art are universal languages able to be understood by anyone but something text focused like theatre isn’t.  The themes can be universal but the language isn’t.  I found myself only really enjoying when the jester would do slapstick humor.  I support what the show is trying to raise awareness for and I’m definitely glad that I did try this; however, in the future I would like to have subtitles when I experience a piece of art in a foreign language.