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Sheila Till, with Bill Hindle, discusses her production for Pendle Civic Players of Nelson, Lancashire,

, Lear, widely acknowledged as ,", peilre's s upreme te rp iece, is rather more revered

lllved. Ex perienced classical . , past tht' Hamlet stage agree

, its titl e role is The Big One her or not th<2y 've seen or

., lT1 Ronald Harwood 's The ",-r) , vet all are awed bv th e

I ~)f taking it on. More so .!hers within Shakespeare's

a non, KillS Lear has good - U the IVa v down the ("<1St list,

\\' hich~ milke considerable

In: it doubling no perform er ell'" that (s)he has been short­

- yet the play does excite il particularly among

'Cleties, many of which \\ hen it comes to

' f""are , to be foreve r joined at tl ei ther Twelfth Night or A

(;ht's orel1l11. Afte r I 'liccessfu L prod uctions

_hi \ less obvious 13ardic ~"'I /re (or Mms/l/,(', <lnd

'dY" p(ilitically dubious , ""rl'w - we decided to

full -,; ale trilgedy, and, :ru. po' ,' istcmt lobbv ing bv

- member convinced it' wa~s

is re' lative ly c .. .,.,,~l,-'':nr\\drd , timeless and ever­

1\ (l noble families Ie .1_ the fathers , Lear and

long, it's fast, lean, and tensely dramatic; this is the version we llsed, and we cut approximately 450 lines from it. Our scats Me none too comfortilble, the sightlines (see SET below) would not in all cases be good. Our aim WilS to get through the play in three hours, including the interval (taken ilfter act III), while sacrificing <IS little as poss ible of what makes the play the awesome th.ing it is. This made for a long first half, but the scene of Gloucester's blinding provides a powerful climax.

We, like many societies, cast plays afte r holding readings, and if necessa ry we subsequently invi te actors from outside the immediate nucleus to take part. Casting King Lear followed this pattern, ilOd initially was fraught with difficulty - some players withdrew or were dela yed by othe r commitments. Eventually our company was assembled , with experienced Shakespeareans as Lear, Gloucester, Rega n, Kent and Edmond; our

Goneril, Edgar, Fool and OSW.l , had all played some Shakespea before, and the Cordelia wa. flucn t verse-speaker. Th rem aining members of our 1-, strong cast showed skill ano · confidence; all were committ generous and flexible .

Various "doubling" options w t'

debated . In the end, two ca;. members appeared in vari, servant/messenger role-supplemented in the second hal fl actors previo usly seen as 0

Oswald and Cornwa l.l; Fool all Oswald also played the King France and the Duke of Burgunc in the o pening scene. We hii planned to have a female Fo< (there are precedents) , bu necessary relocations ruled this ou Only briefly did we flirt with t idea of echoing the traditiona lli­be lief th'1t Fool and Cordelia \\ the double in Shakes peare's time · "And my poor fool is hang 'd ' before turning the option down.

REHEA

The prod uction was the middle or of our stilndard three-show season Rehearsals ran over three mon th , on a basic schedule of II, rehearsals ,1 week. Though tl buck finally s topped with m e, encouraged a free-fa r-all, trial-an erro r style from which we .I

gained a great deal, as we also d i from general ins truction t a pproach Shakepeare's langu<l!,! naturalistically, at leas t to begi with. There evo lved, in or revelatory rehearsa l session, ""h became known as the "kitch table" method; the epic row of A II Scene 4, where Goneril it

Regan combine to force Lear ou t , to the hea th , became for a timt' low-key, living-room wrangle. It a wonderful way to take tt mystique out of heightened te and to come to terms with whal me<lns, and actors rehearsing 0 1 . piste in twos and threes used it d_

means of engaging with the characters and relationships befol projecting more expans ively. It at, worked well when some Cil-'

members conducted work. h sess ions on the play in loc secondary schools, encouragi lL pupils to improvise around some the play's key themes, as part of (l policy to incorporate syllabus tc ' . into our annual programmes.

Shakespeare g ives his actors t eq uivalent of the full range artist's materials and a bJan canvas. While there are a numlx of accepted truths about characte and their motives, there a countless ways of delive ring tlwrr In our case, for instance, our Le<l physique ruled out the fra. ,,..II JV

~togenarian - what developed :as an arrogant, essentially lazy

" march whose relish for hunting ma ined unabated despite his age

nd who could, credibly, survive the night in the pouring rain that

il hxi his Fool. Everv chMilcter nd iKtor had to be ~ssessed in

; lmilJr terms: individual ersonalities appeared for the

J ourly pragmatic Goneril and the ,e XlwlIy voracious Regan, while Cordelia turned out to be, too much for her own good, the chip otf her father' s block. The b,lStard Edmond needed to be driven by .unbitions we could all understand, repe.lIent only in his unremitting eg otism, while his hillt-brother Edgar seemed initi,lllv a bewildered IlUij, honel{ by elemental exposure, dispossession and bere,wement into till' implacable avenger of Act V. It was acute intelligence, devoid of feV11<'55, which became the tr,;demark of (lUr Fool.

This charitcterisation process was developed for everyone in the team, as each of the cast mapped his or her journey through the play in ,1 way which made, as it h,ld t(i, complete sense. Everv new director and cast must "resolve these issues for the mselves, (l voiding s tereotype and finding truth. Do this, and vou'll echo Willy Russell's Rita: ' "It's fun, tragedy, isn't it?"

A schedule, calling actors who share particular scenes for specific reheat'sal sessions, works well for this pi<1y, although in the first few weeks l'nforced cast absences made this difficult for us to sustain. Later we went all out for runs of extended sections; ch,1llces to run through in full were few, and very closl' to show week. \flie were concerned about perform,l11Ce length. All pacing, pauses and restored lines h,ld to be justified, and business (including fights, choreographed skilfully by one of the cast), while given full vaIUl', was definitely brisk. [n the end we met our three. hour target, corning down on the tirst night with eight mll1utes to spare.

Forget Ston",henge. "Nothing" is a \'ital word in Killg Lear, and a set which echoes it will suit the play well, besides going some way to c·atching the fluidity of ,1 Globe performance by allowing scenes to to llow on swiftly one from another. Ours. went through a series of moditications before a £inal version was agreed. I;Ve often perform on the theatre floor, with audiences in the round or, as now, on three sides. We used the proscenium stage as well, reached via an off­centre ramp flanked by a shallow, enclosed, stage- high apron, open at one end to act as Edgar's hiding place at hom'" and later as his hovel. On stage, two balanced,

angled tlats, with a central gap for entrances were rhe only adclitionill permanent scenery. Silvered vases of surreal flowers and ,1 draped "throne" were added for Scene 1 only. Ramp, apron, flats ,1nd bilckstage were all black. Actors could also enter/exit at the four au~ienct.\ corners, \,vhen~ agClin, selt-standing black flats or 3-sided "boxes" gave them the chance to aw~it cu<-'s without distracting the audience. To achieve this tlexibility, actors had to leave the the.atre and re-enter by another door, rega rdlt'ss of the elements! One major regret was that our seating gave restricted views to a percentage of a full house, as we were unable to rake our audience i.n a way which would comply with ttre regulations, but I'a riety in st,lglng levels established mood and atmosphere. Powerful table'a ux were created in the first scene ilnd, particula rl y, the last, where no curtdin ca ll was taken in order to prolong the final agony.

Properties, especia lly cumbersome on0'5, were few. Kent' s stllCks WE're custom-built, the sleeplng Lear was propelled by wheelchair to his reconcili,ltion with Cordeliil, and a wheeled catafalque presented , on stage, the budies of Goneril and Regan, with Lear and Cordelia entwined in death on the ramp below them. Swords became knives, with accompanylng textual modification - "knife", "steel" or "blade" served the purpose. Cornwi1U blinded Gloucester, who WilS pinioned on the ramp in an inverted crucifixion, with the help of two small pockets of blo(ld concea led low down on either side (If the s lope, one of which also contdined CI nlcslll ericaliv gru.'some false eyeball. ~

Make-up was clearly necessary here, as it was for Edgar's bizarre alter ego, Tom O'l:led latn, while the disguised Kent added a scar to his slouch- hatted , Clilsl.vegian Caius. For the rest, we used minim al make-up, give.n our closeness to the audience, '1l1d those males in the cast in need of facial hair obligingly grew their own.

The actors performed in mod ern dress. [n the opening scen ... the nwn wor.' dinner jacke ts (Kent Wil in full military uniform), and the ladies sumptuous evening gowns. Men also wore collarless s,ltin shirts, col(lur-coded to match the sashes of their follow ers, who otherwise wore black. Dark gl,1sses gave soldters anonymity and menace. Edgar appeared fresh from the tennis-court to become the dupe of Edmond. Lear returned from the hunt in riding-boots and camouflage jacket, a style echoed later in th e onny Lltigues of many characters as the play drew to its close. The overall aim was to create a look which set these people apart while simultaneously uniting them itS a society, or society itself in a microcosm.

Lighting changes were kept to a minimum, in line with seventee nth-cen tury outdoor practice, though discreet or marked variations did ilt times create diffe rences between interior and exterior, night ilnd d,lY, storm and c,llm. Music seemed unnecessary: the play opened to it lMckdrop of cocktail-party chat, celebrating LeM's retirem ent and Cordelia's impending engagement. We ultimMely sl~ttled for recorded sound-effects of 11 real storm, after debating and rejecting the Llse of Citst members to vocalise Lear's internal and external turmoil. A smoke machine was Jettisoned when it triggered the fire-alarms, and str,ltegicaILy-placed buckets of water ill lowed those out in the downpour to douse themselves libera lly between scenes.

The whole enterprise confirmed what we already knew - that to do King Lear is a tremendous undertaking, the scale of which sho uld not be underestimated. That said, it is an exciting project and emphatically possible, and to have directed or played in it is no mean feat. What's more, it se lls. We had feared the wors t, and indeed the first of ou r four performances opened to thirt), pi1trons. The second played to ninety, and on the last night we were packed to the doors. Word had got round that something dtfferent from the usual loca l theah'icitl fare, a landmark Eng lish drama, was happening. Sustained, enthusiastic feedback emphasised our own reaction to an intensely satisfying experience. o Text: Sheila Till, Bill Hindle

Photographs: Peter Young, Hayley Walton

• 9JUNE

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