Gallus Theater Programm: TNT Theatre Britain mit King Lear

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King Lear

TNT 

Premiere

TNT Theatre Britain

»King Lear«

by William Shakespeare

Donnerstag, 5.5.05 19.30 Eur 13/10/8
Freitag,    6.5.05 19.30 Eur 13/10/8

»As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport.«

This is the darkest of Shakespeare's tragedies and perhaps his most dramatic and profound. Director Paul Stebbings and his experienced team will go for the heart of the play rather than just stage the text. The focus will be on the two families of Lear and Gloucester and will strip away minor character and incident to reveal the core drama.

Music will be woven through the production more in the manner of film than standard theatre. Movement will be used as a way of exploring the forces of nature. Nature impacts on the fragile humans on the Heath, so the human figures react to the extremes of Nature and insanity through structured movement and choreography.

The production will aim at clarity - clarity of narrative as well as ideas. The text will be edited to that effect - taking into account the leading living scholar of Shakespeare (Prof. Frank Kermode), that the folio text of King Lear was never performed. We proceed from his idea that the folio represents a poetic version for private reading and that there was a lost stage version (similar to the first quarto of Hamlet which TNT successfully staged). This freedom of approach allows us to create a fast moving and accessible drama. The setting will be Celtic Britain, using modern Celtic music with its ability to evoke the windswept island where Lear is set. There will be echoes of Stonehenge in the stage set.

Overall we will aim for a radical and popular interpretation that combines all three performance media: drama, dance and music to approach thus epic work, and through that the human condition.

TNT's version of Hamlet won awards in Singapore and Tehran and was seen in some twenty countries. His other Shakespeare productions include »Macbeth«, »A Midsummer Night's Dream« and »Romeo and Juliet« all of which have toured worldwide. TNT has performed at the Gallus Theater for over ten years with a variety of productions that included »Brave New World« and »The Murder of Sherlock Holmes«.

»TNT demonstriert alle Tugenden des englischen Theaters auf einmal.« (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

»Doch wahrscheinlich liegt Stebbings' Erfolg nicht nur an der Wortgewalt und den Gehalten Shakespeares. Vielmehr gelingt es ihm, mit seinen ungemein kraftvoll aufspielenden Schauspielern den Stücken einen modernen Geist zu verleihen.« (Frankfurter Neue Presse)

Cast:
King Lear: Leo Atkin
Goneril, his daughter: Emilia Brodie
Ragan, his daughter: Hannah McPake
Cordelia, his daughter: Nadia Morgan
Earl of Gloucester: Richard Clodfelter
Edmund, his son: Gareth Radcliffe
Edgar, his son: Robin Armstrong
Other roles: played by the ensemble
Director: Paul Stebbings
Composer & M. D.: Thomas Johnson
Choreography: Eric Tessier-Lavigne
Set design: Berndt Gross
Costume design: Julianne Kasprizk
Producers: Grantly Marshall and Gunnar Kheun