Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino’s
King Lear begins previews
May 2, 2014....
Colm Feore returns to the Stratford Festival for the first time in five years to play the title role in
King Lear. This production is directed by Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, fresh from his triumphs with last season’s
Mary Stuart and The Merchant of Venice. King Lear starts previews on Monday, May 5, at the Festival Theatre and opens the 2014 season on Monday, May 26.
Audiences
have been eagerly awaiting Mr. Feore’s return to Stratford since he
starred as Macbeth and Cyrano de Bergerac in 2009. Throughout his 17
seasons, he has played
many title roles, including Don Juan, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Richard III
and Romeo. Mr. Feore is also a familiar face on film and television,
featured in
The Borgias, Revolution and The Good Wife, as well as Marc Webb’s
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which opens in theatres this weekend.
Recently, Mr. Feore was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for his
contributions as an actor of the stage and screen, notably bridging
Anglophone and Francophone cultures as a fluently
bilingual performer.
“Colm is at the height of his powers,” says Mr. Cimolino, who will also direct Mr. Feore in
The Beaux' Stratagem later this season. “He is an actor who can
project incredible intelligence and strength while also being able to
capture the nuances of Lear’s decline.”
King Lear
tells the story of an aging monarch who proposes to divide his kingdom
among
his three daughters after requiring each in turn to publicly profess
how much she loves him. This decision sets in motion a train of events
that rob him of his home, his status and his sanity – everything except
the honest love and loyalty of his youngest
daughter, Cordelia, whom he had forsaken.
As Shakespeare’s greatest exploration of the human condition,
King Lear is a fitting choice within this season’s theme of Madness: Minds Pushed to the Edge.
“King Lear
documents not only the breakdown of an old king and the destruction of
two families but that of an entire country – and by extension, the
society we
live in today,” says Mr. Cimolino. “The play was written in tough
times, with growing religious tensions, rapid economic changes that
drove extreme income disparity, great divisions between king and
parliament that would lead a generation to civil war and
end in the beheading of a monarch. In 1606, the play was on some level
prophetic. Sadly, perhaps, it always will be.
“In directing
King Lear, I have urged our actors and creative teams to think
about the issues it raises for us today. In his journey through madness,
Lear finds the need for social justice, faith in humanity, and love,
and thereby discovers his soul. But in his and
Cordelia's death, the horror around him, there is no victory for hope.
The last words are ‘We that are young / Shall never see so much, nor
live so long.’ Perhaps Shakespeare was inviting us – and especially
those who are young – to write a different play
within our own lives, that of our families and one world.”
In addition to Mr. Feore, the production features
Maev Beaty as Goneril, Evan Buliung as Edgar, Sara Farb as Cordelia,
Jonathan Goad as the Earl of Kent, Brad Hodder as Edmund, Stephen Ouimette as the Fool,
Liisa Repo-Martell as Regan and Scott Wentworth as the Earl of Gloucester.
The artistic team includes Designer
Eo Sharp, Lighting Designer Michael Walton, Composer Keith Thomas, Sound Designer
Thomas Ryder Payne, Fight Director John Stead and Dramaturges Alexander Leggatt and
Toby Malone.
King Lear is dedicated to actor and director
Jean-Louis Roux.
King Lear
Forum Highlights
The
Stratford Festival Forum is a series of activities and events,
including concerts, debates, talks, comedy and interactive
presentations, that offer theatregoers a
unique opportunity to delve further into the ideas and issues raised by
the 2014 playbill and its theme of Madness: Minds Pushed to the Edge.
Themes related to
King Lear will be explored through several Forum events, including: Lear’s Shadow: Contemporary Reflections on Diagnoses, Abuses and Testamentary Capacity, in which Drs.
Mark Rapoport, Carole Cohen and Ken Shulman examine the play and its central character through the lens of their practice as geriatric psychiatrists;
Fatherhood, in which Antoni Cimolino, Colm Feore and Scott Wentworth discuss how fatherhood has shaped their understanding of
King Lear; and Souls Under Pressure, in which Torrance Kirby and
Paul Yachnin of McGill University, along with Colm Feore, take King Lear as their focus to ask what happens to the human spirit when people are pushed to the limits of endurance.
Sustaining
support for the Forum is generously provided by Kelly & Michael
Meighen and the T.R. Meighen Foundation. Support for the 2014 Forum is
generously provided by
Nandita & Julian Wise. Selected Forum events supported by Bell
Let’s Talk.
King Lear opens on May 26 and runs until October 10. For tickets, contact the box office
at 1.800.567.1600 or visit stratfordfestival.ca.
King Lear
is sponsored by Sun Life Financial. Production support is generously
provided
by Jane Petersen-Burfield & family, Cecil & Linda Rorabeck,
Barbara & John Schubert and Catherine & David Wilkes.
Support for the 2014 season of the Festival Theatre is generously provided by Claire & Daniel Bernstein.
Stratford
Direct, the daily return private bus service, now offers two routes:
Toronto to Stratford and Detroit to Stratford. The Toronto bus costs $20
round trip, departing
once daily from May 3 to 24 and September 23 to October 12, and twice daily between May 26 and September 21. The Detroit bus costs $40 round trip, with Tuesday, Friday and Saturday departures from June 3 to September 28. Both routes run on performance days
only.
The
Stratford Direct Presenting Sponsor is OLG. Support for Stratford
Direct is generously provided by The Peter Cundill Foundation.
The 2014 season runs from April 21 to October 12, featuring
King Lear; Crazy for You; two versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream;
The Beaux’ Stratagem; Man of La Mancha; Alice Through the Looking-Glass;
Hay Fever; King John; Mother Courage and Her Children; Antony and Cleopatra;
Christina, The Girl King; and more than 200 events in The Forum.
Cast (in alphabetical order)
King of France…………………………….... Goneril……………………………………....
Albany…………………………………….....
Edgar………………………………………… Evan Buliung
Ensemble…………………………………….
Ensemble…………………………………….
Ensemble…………………………………….
Cordelia……………………………………...
King Lear………………………………….....
Curan………………………………………… Xuan Fraser
Kent…………………………………………..
Edmund……………………………………… Brad Hodder
Ensemble…………………………………….
Understudy…………………………………..
Old Man…………………………………….. Robert King
Captain……………………………………....
Herald, Knight………………………………. Gordon S. Miller
Burgundy…………………………………....
Oswald……………………………………....
Fool………………………………………….
Regan………………………………………..
Understudy…………………………………..
Ensemble………………………………….....
Cornwall……………………………………..
Doctor……………………………………….
Gloucester…………………………………...
Artistic Credits
Director……………………………………... Designer……………………………………..
Lighting Designer…………………………...
Composer…………………………………....
Sound Designer……………………………...
Dramaturges………………………………....
Fight Director………………………………..
Producer……………………………………..
Casting Director……………………………..
Creative Planning Director…………………. Jason Miller
Associate Fight Director……………………. Geoff Scovell
Assistant Director…………………………....
Assistant Set Designer……………………....
Assistant Costume Designer………………... Sara Brzozowski
Assistant Lighting Designer……………….... Tristan Tidswell
Fight Captain………………………………...
Stage Manager……………………………....
Assistant Stage Managers…………………... Holly Korhonen, Corinne Richards
Apprentice Stage Manager………………….. Linsey Callaghan
Production Assistant………………………...
Production Stage Managers……………….... Margaret Palmer, Cynthia Toushan
Technical Director………………………….. Jeff ScollonStarBuzzOnline.com
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