The School Play: King Lear
- Tuesday 9th February 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
- Wednesday 10th February 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
- Thursday 11th February 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
- Friday 12th February 2010 at 2 p.m.
The School Play – E.M.Forster Theatre
Tickets are free but please book through the Tonbridge School Box Office boxoffice@tonbridge-school.org, 01732 304241
King Lear is one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays: violent, funny and tragic. It is about the tensions within families and the conflict between two generations, as the young replace the old.
Sir, I love you... dearer than eye-sight
Lear is the highly popular warrior-king of Britain; but he has grown old, deluded and deranged. Lear’s infirmity and ferocious temper are exploited by his two eldest daughters. He is driven mad and ventures out across a heath amidst a violent storm. His loyal servant, the Duke of Gloucester, disobeys orders and rescues him, but is cruelly deceived by his illegitimate, ambitious son Edmund, with shocking consequences.
I will have such revenges... they shall be the terrors of the earth
Chaos and brutality now descend on the nation. On the eve of a mighty battle, two strange but familiar old men meet on a Dover cliff...
King Lear deals with power and greed within both the family and the state: it asks whether such a society is part of human nature or something we create. It is a journey through madness, deception and violence, toward truth and clarity of sight.
I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
I stumbled when I saw
This cut version of the play is set in Britain during the early 1930’s, taking visual inspiration from Edward Hopper’s paintings and the cultural influence from Hollywood at that time. Some of the seating in the E M Forster Theatre has been especially arranged for the audience to become guests at the power-dividing ceremony which opens the play.
We that are young shall never see so much, nor live so long
