Play Guide

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The Play Guide for King Lear was created by:

Shari Wattling

Artistic Associate and Production Dramaturg

Zachary Moull

Assistant Dramaturg

Mike Griffin

Assistant Director

Want to get in touch?

Send an email to zmoull@theatrecalgary.com

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King Lear runs from March 10 to April 12, 2015

For tickets, visit theatrecalgary.com or call (403) 294-7447

Front cover image by David Cooper

Table of Contents

THE BASICS

Cast and Creative Team ..................................................... 01

Who’s Who? ...................................................................... 02

Time and Place ................................................................. 02

The Story .......................................................................... 03

EXPLORATIONS

The Thrill of Shakespeare

An Interview with Benedict Campbell ........................ 06

Bard on the Beach ............................................................. 09

Who Was William Shakespeare? ......................................... 11

The Origins of King Lear .................................................... 13

Nahum Tate’s “Improvement” of King Lear .......................... 15

Illuminating King Lear

A Note from Production Dramaturg Shari Wattling ..... 16

Nobles and Peasants: The Feudal System ............................ 20

Jesters and Fools ............................................................... 21

Weapons and Warfare ....................................................... 22

A Textured World

An Interview with Costume Designer Deitra Kalyn ...... 24

The Wheel of Fortune ........................................................ 27

Elizabethan Astrology ........................................................ 28

CONVERSATIONS

Conversation Starters ........................................................ 29

The Royal Reading List ...................................................... 29

Movie Night ...................................................................... 30

Sources ............................................................................ 31

THE BASICS - 1 -

Cast and Creative Team

KING LEAR By William Shakespeare

THE CAST Byron Allen King of France Scott Bellis Fool Michael Blake Edmund Ian Butcher Oswald Benedict Campbell King Lear Tyrell Crews Edgar Robert Klein Duke of Cornwall Jennifer Lines Regan David Marr Earl of Gloucester John Murphy Earl of Kent Chirag Naik Duke of Burgundy, Curan Declan O’Reilly Duke of Albany Andrea Rankin Cordelia Nathan Schmidt Knight Colleen Wheeler Goneril

THE CREATIVE TEAM Dennis Garnhum Director Pam Johnson Set Design Deitra Kalyn Costume Design Gerald King Lighting Design Dave Pierce Original Music Shari Wattling Dramaturg Ian Watson Text Coach Jane MacFarlane Vocal Coach Haysam Kadri Fight Director Karl Sine Fight Director Nathan Schmidt Fight Captain Mike Griffin Assistant Director Donovan Seidle Assistant to Dave Pierce Stephen Courtenay Stage Manager Emma Brager Assistant Stage Manager Alexandra Shewan Apprentice Stage Manager

THE BASICS - 2 -

Who’s Who?

King Lear: King of Britain

Goneril: Lear’s eldest daughter

Regan: Lear’s second-eldest daughter

Cordelia: Lear’s youngest daughter

Duke of Albany: Goneril’s husband

Duke of Cornwall: Regan’s husband

Earl of Gloucester: Lear’s cherished old friend

Edgar: Gloucester’s legitimate son

Edmund: Gloucester’s illegitimate son

Earl of Kent: Lear’s trusted advisor

The Fool: Lear’s court jester

A Knight: part of Lear’s following

Duke of Burgundy: suitor of Cordelia

King of France: suitor of Cordelia

Oswald: Goneril’s servant

Curan: Gloucester’s servant

Time and Place

Theatre Calgary’s production of King Lear is set in the kingdom of Britain

in the late Middle Ages. The action of the play takes place inside King

Lear’s castle, Goneril and Albany’s castle, and Gloucester’s castle, as well

as outside on a heath near Gloucester’s castle, and on battlefields near the

coast of Dover.

THE BASICS - 3 -

The Story

PART ONE

King Lear gathers his family and friends at a celebratory feast. He

announces that he will divide his kingdom between his three daughters

and asks each to say how much they love him. His older daughters,

Goneril and Regan, offer

flattering declarations of love.

Cordelia, the youngest, refuses

to say more than that she loves

him just as much as a daughter

should, no more nor less. Lear

is outraged and banishes

Cordelia. When the Earl of

Kent, Lear’s loyal advisor,

objects to this, Lear banishes

him too. The King of France

offers to marry Cordelia and

the two depart the kingdom.

The Earl of Gloucester, a

cherished friend of Lear, is

tricked by his illegitimate son

Edmund into believing his

legitimate son Edgar wants him

dead.

Kent disguises himself and

rejoins Lear as his servant at

Goneril’s castle, where Lear is

angered by his daughter’s lack

of hospitality and disrespect.

Lear and his entourage of

Lear banishes his daughter Cordelia.

Benedict Campbell, far left, and Andrea Rankin,

far right, with other cast members in rehearsal

(Meghan McMaster)

Kent roughs up Goneril’s servant Oswald

after he disrespects Lear.

In foreground from left: Benedict Campbell,

John Murphy, and Ian Butcher, with other cast

members in rehearsal (Meghan McMaster)

THE BASICS - 4 -

Knights depart to stay with

Regan, sending Kent ahead as

messenger.

Scheming Edmund convinces

Edgar to flee from their father

Gloucester’s anger. To avoid

capture, Edgar disguises

himself as a mad beggar, calls

himself ‘Poor Tom,’ and goes

into hiding.

Regan and her husband, the

Duke of Cornwall, travel to

Gloucester’s castle to avoid

Lear. Lear soon arrives there

too and is furious that his

servant, the disguised Kent, has

been put in the stocks. When

both his daughters seem to

offer the same lack of respect,

Lear departs as a storm begins.

PART TWO

Lear shouts at the skies as the storm intensifies. Kent and Lear’s Fool bring

him to shelter where they encounter Edgar in his disguise as Poor Tom.

Secretly, Gloucester arranges to send Lear to Dover, where Cordelia has

landed with the French army to fight on the king’s behalf. Edmund

exposes his father’s plans to Cornwall and Regan. To punish him,

Cornwall gouges out Gloucester’s eyes, before being fatally wounded

himself by a distraught servant.

Lear shouts at the skies.

Benedict Campbell in rehearsal (Shari Wattling)

Edmund draws his father Gloucester

deeper into his plot.

Cast members in rehearsal (Meghan McMaster)

THE BASICS - 5 -

Blind and turned out into the wilderness, Gloucester meets Poor Tom, but

does not recognize him as his son Edgar. The two make their way to

Dover together, where they find Lear wandering mad and alone.

Goneril and Regan are both attracted to Edmund and have become jealous

of each other’s affections. Goneril sends a letter to Edmund that outlines a

plan to kill her husband, the Duke of Albany, so that Edmund and she can

be together. This letter is intercepted by Edgar, who secretly gives it to

Albany as he prepares to join the battle against the invading French army.

Lear is reunited with his

daughter Cordelia, but when

the French army is defeated by

the English on the battlefield,

Edmund takes both father and

daughter captive and secretly

orders their deaths. Goneril

poisons Regan in jealousy over

Edmund, and then kills herself

when her betrayal is revealed.

Edgar fatally wounds his

brother Edmund in a duel, as

their father Gloucester dies from the stress of the battle. With his dying

breaths, Edmund tries to reverse his orders to kill Cordelia and Lear – but

it is too late. Lear arrives with Cordelia’s body in his arms and dies of a

broken heart.

“You could say that even people who speak English don’t

understand every word that Shakespeare wrote, but you can

certainly understand the feelings and the emotions.”

– Kevin Spacey

The British and the French meet on the

battlefield.

Cast members in rehearsal (Shari Wattling)

EXPLORATIONS - 6 -

The Thrill of Shakespeare An Interview with Benedict Campbell

A veteran of ten seasons at the Stratford Festival and twelve at the Shaw Festival,

Benedict Campbell has an impressive résumé of classical roles ranging from Mark

Antony to King Henry IV to Andrew Undershaft. He’s also performed in King

Lear twice before: first as Edmund in 1985, with his father Douglas Campbell as

Lear, and then as the Earl of Kent in 2002, with Christopher Plummer in the title

role. “Benedict comes from a theatre family and from a huge tradition,” says King

Lear director Dennis Garnhum, “and you can tell that from his profound

understanding of Shakespeare.” We spoke with Benedict during the first week of

the rehearsal process.

Would you take us through Lear’s journey?

Lear starts from a place of hope. He has a plan in which he can retire and

still maintain his title. He wants it all – to behave like the king, but not

have any of the day-to-day drudgery. He wants a peaceful journey to the

end. But as with life, other people’s plans get in the way.

Benedict Campbell

EXPLORATIONS - 7 -

Two big things happen. One is that his youngest daughter Cordelia, for

whom he has the most affection, refuses to play the game he sets up of

saying who loves him most.

He’s really saying “I just want

to hear how much you all love

me.” He’s planning to spend

most of his time with Cordelia,

so the first disaster is when she

says she won’t play along: “I

love you according to my bond,

no more nor less.” That sends

him spiralling out of control. Of

course, he runs into surprises

with his other daughters too.

He’s given them everything

they could possibly want in life:

power, wealth, influence. But they don’t live up to their part of the

bargain. So the journey for Lear to that point is one of profound and

cataclysmic disappointment.

Then at the same time, he discovers a fear of madness, which is tied to his

decision to give some of his powers away. It’s a fear of age, of getting old,

of being forgotten and not loved. And the beauty of the story, to me, is

that when he does become mad, or what is considered mad, he’s probably

the most sane he ever is in the play. He behaves in a peculiar manner, yes,

but he sees the truth and the hypocrisy of the world. He understands that

better than he ever has.

Towards the end of the play, he has this wonderful reconciliation with

Cordelia. After all the misery he’s been through, it looks like he’s going to

get what he wanted, his perfect life. He’s going to spend his dotage with

his youngest daughter. But then she dies, and his heart is broken.

Benedict Campbell as King Lear

(Trudie Lee)

EXPLORATIONS - 8 -

We’re just a few days into the rehearsal process. What sort of work is

going on right now?

Sometimes you’d start by sitting around a table for a long time and

discussing the text, but Dennis has mostly wanted us to get up on our feet

and start staging the scenes. There’s a charge that comes into your body

from working with other people. We tend to be different people with

others than by ourselves, and that’s no different in acting.

So your relation to the other actors helps you develop the character?

Yes, that’s a good way of putting it. The preparation I’ve put into the role

is meaningless once I’m standing up and talking to someone else, because

they won’t respond in the way that I’ve played out in my head. And that’s

exciting. I sometimes find myself going to the same places that I have

gone to in the past, and I think rehearsal is really about trying to shake off

those idiosyncrasies – shedding the parts of you that are unnecessary for

the role.

What advice would you have for audience members of King Lear?

Have faith that you will understand, because Shakespeare is not as

complicated as you may have been told since the age of four. Don’t come

in with the preconception that it’s beyond your understanding. If we

didn’t understand King Lear, it would have died four hundred years ago.

There is stuff that is complicated, but it’s just the complexity of a play that

actually has something to say about humanity. That’s part of the thrill of

going to the theatre.

With Shakespeare’s language, I think the key is to listen with your own

instincts. You’ll hear things in the language that you may not absolutely

understand. There’s stuff that I don’t absolutely understand, and I’ve gone

through it hundreds of times. I hear a line and suddenly think “oh it could

mean that.” That’s the thrill of it. So trust in your instinct to hear things in

a different way. You’ll hear something and think “that could mean that” –

and it probably does. So believe yourself.

EXPLORATIONS - 9 -

Bard on the Beach

Theatre Calgary is proud to partner with Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach

Shakespeare Festival. After a five-week run in the Max Bell Theatre, this

production of King Lear will transfer to Vancouver for the summer,

playing in repertory at Bard on the Beach for thirteen weeks from June 18

to September 20. It’s a thrilling opportunity for Theatre Calgary to

collaborate with a world-renowned producer of Shakespeare plays and to

bring our artistry to a national audience.

Bard on the Beach is Western Canada’s largest not-for-profit professional

Shakespeare festival. More than 100,000 playgoers attended the Festival in

2014, and well over a million people have experienced Bard since it was

founded in 1990. Each summer, the Festival offers Shakespeare plays,

related dramas, and unique music events in two modern performance

tents in the magnificent waterfront setting of Vancouver’s Vanier Park,

just across False Creek from downtown. The Mainstage Theatre tent,

where King Lear will be presented, is a true highlight of the Festival – its

remarkable open-ended design means that the actors perform against a

spectacular backdrop of mountains, sea, and sky.

An aerial view of Bard on the Beach (Photoblimp)

EXPLORATIONS - 10 -

Three productions join King Lear in the 2015 Bard on the Beach season,

which runs from June 4 to September 26. Scott Bellis, the Fool in King Lear,

directs The Comedy of Errors; Daryl Cloran, recent director of Liberation

Days at Theatre Calgary, leads a Jazz Age production of Love’s Labour’s

Lost; and Christopher Gaze, Bard’s artistic director and founder, directs

the world premiere stage adaptation of Shakespeare’s Rebel by C.C.

Humphreys, which will feature many King Lear cast members. With

romance, mischief, intrigue, and tragedy, it’s sure to be an exciting

summer on the beach.

Look around the Theatre Calgary lobby for

photos from Bard on the Beach’s 25-year history.

Todd Thomson and Robert Olguin in Twelfth Night, 2013 (David Blue)

EXPLORATIONS - 11 -

Who Was William Shakespeare?

The playwright Ben Jonson (1572–1637), one of William Shakespeare’s

contemporaries, heralded his colleague and competitor as "not of an age

but for all time." Centuries later,

Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy

(1828–1910) declared that

"Shakespeare is crude, immoral,

vulgar, and senseless." Like so

many, both writers clearly held

strong opinions about the most

famous playwright in history.

But who really was William

Shakespeare, the man widely

regarded as the greatest writer

of the English language?

There aren’t many historical

records about Shakespeare’s

early life. He was born to father John Shakespeare, a successful glover and

a prominent alderman, and mother Mary Arden in the town of Stratford-

upon-Avon, England. The church record of Shakespeare’s baptism says he

was born on April 23, 1564, and he presumably attended the local

grammar school, but little else is known of his youth. The next existing

record of him is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582. The following

year she bore a daughter, Susanna, followed two years later by the twins

Judith and Hamnet.

In 1592, Shakespeare is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene as

an actor, poet, and playwright. By 1594, he joined up with one of the most

successful acting troupes in London, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. In

1599, the troupe lost the lease on their theatre, but by that point they were

A portrait of William Shakespeare

EXPLORATIONS - 12 -

wealthy enough to build a

theatre of their own on the

South Bank of the Thames.

They called it "The Globe."

When James I came to the

throne in 1603, the troupe was

newly designated as the King's

Men. Shakespeare and his

company entertained the King

and the public for another ten

years until June 19, 1613, when

a cannon fired during Henry

VIII set fire to the Globe’s thatch

roof and burned the theatre to the ground. Shakespeare retired to his

home in Stratford and kept writing until his death in 1616 at the age of 52.

Few authors have been the subject of more scholarly debate than

Shakespeare. General consensus today attributes 37 plays and 154 sonnets

to Shakespeare, while arguments rage over which plays may have been

collaborations with other playwrights. In fact, some scholars even argue

that someone other than William Shakespeare must have written his

works, believing that Shakespeare’s plays are too sophisticated and

contain too much detailed and intimate knowledge of life in the court to

have been written by a glover’s son from Stratford-upon-Avon. These

“anti-Stratfordians” offer a wide array of other candidates such as Sir

Francis Bacon or Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as potential

authors of Shakespeare’s plays.

With the lack of historical records, we may never fully resolve the debates

over the identity of William Shakespeare and the authorship of his plays.

But nevertheless, there is widespread agreement that he is among the

greatest writers produced by Western civilization. His plays have endured

for more than 400 years and still challenge and delight us today.

Diagram of The Swan, a competitor of The

Globe that had a similar design, 1596

EXPLORATIONS - 13 -

The Origins of King Lear

Shakespeare’s plays were often inspired by source materials that provided

ideas for characters and storylines. Here are some of the sources that have

been identified for King Lear:

Historia Regum Britanniae, a 12th-century treatise by Geoffrey of

Monmouth in which “Leir” is said to have ruled Britain c. 800 BC.

The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587) by Ralph

Holinshed, which is the primary source for many of Shakespeare’s

history plays, as well as parts of King Lear, Macbeth, and Cymbeline.

The political poetry collection The Mirror for Magistrates (1587) and

Edmund Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene (1589).

A play called The True Chronicle History of King Leir, and his three

daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella that was performed by the

Queen’s Men and the Lord Sussex’s Men in 1594 and published in

1605. Its author is unknown. This version has a happy ending and

does not contain the Earl of Gloucester subplot, which Shakespeare

may have derived from Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia (1590).

The earliest known performance of Shakespeare’s King Lear was before the

court of King James I at Whitehall on December 26, 1606. It is believed that

Richard Burbage originated the title role, and, as was the tradition and

law of the time, the daughters were all played by young men.

There were two original publications of the script: the Quarto edition of

1608 and 1619, and the Folio edition of 1623. The two editions differ from

each other at many points: the Quarto contains 300 lines not found in the

Folio, while the Folio has 100 lines that are not in the Quarto. There is

some evidence that Shakespeare himself made these revisions, but since

no copies of Shakespeare’s papers survive, it’s impossible to say for sure.

The performance script for the Theatre Calgary production is adapted

from both the Quarto and the Folio.

EXPLORATIONS - 14 -

The title page from the 1608 Quarto edition of Shakespeare's King Lear

EXPLORATIONS - 15 -

Nahum Tate’s “Improvement” of King Lear

King Lear is recognized today as one of the greatest English plays ever

written, but it all but disappeared from the English stage between 1681

and the early 1800s. During this time, Shakespeare’s play was replaced by

an alternate version written by Irish poet Nahum Tate. In the dedication to

his play The History of King Lear, Tate described Shakespeare’s original

play as “a Heap of Jewels, unstrung and unpolisht; yet so dazzling in their

Disorder that [he] soon perceiv’d [he] had seized a Treasure.” Tate wrote

that he had set out to “rectifie what was wanting in the Regularity and

Probability of the Tale.”

Tate used much of Shakespeare’s original dialogue, but modified the play

in many ways, most notably by adding a romantic subplot between

Cordelia and Edgar and a happy ending in which Lear regains the throne.

As well, the character of the Fool is entirely removed. It’s difficult to

imagine King Lear undergoing such immense revision, but in the late

1600s, the ending was thought to be too upsetting and Shakespeare was

not yet considered to be the master playwright we acknowledge today. It

was not uncommon for his works to be significantly altered, if they were

presented at all.

Many great actors of the era, including Thomas Betterton and David

Garrick, became famous for their portrayals of Lear, but it bears noting

that they were performing in Tate’s adaptation. In 1823, actor Edmund

Kean made the first attempt to restore Shakespeare’s tragic ending, but

audiences were not pleased and he quickly reverted to the happy ending.

In 1834, William Charles Macready presented a “restored” version of the

text (still without the character of the Fool) and audiences began to

respond favourably. Then in 1845, actor Samuel Phelps restored the

complete and original Shakespearean text to the stage, reviving a play

now regarded as a masterpiece for its portrayal of the human condition

and depth of its tragedy.

EXPLORATIONS - 16 -

Illuminating King Lear A Note from Production Dramaturg Shari Wattling

I have worked on many productions of Shakespeare’s plays in my career,

but when Dennis Garnhum first mentioned King Lear as a possible

production this season, my heart leaped and skipped a beat

simultaneously. Any Shakespeare play is a marvelous challenge due to the

size of his stories, the scale of his characters, and the intricacy of his

language. But in my humble opinion, King Lear is truly the granddaddy of

them all.

As the production dramaturg, my role is to act as a consultant and

facilitator for the creative interpretation of the script and story for the

production. This includes historical research, script editing, record

keeping, and meetings – lots and lots of meetings to discuss the huge

realm of this story, the characters, the designs, and the overall experience

we want to illuminate in our production.

Director Dennis Garnhum, production dramaturg Shari Wattling, and assistant

director Mike Griffin meet about King Lear (Richard Lam)

EXPLORATIONS - 17 -

Director Dennis Garnhum and I began our discussions about the play

about a year and a half ago. Our first order of business was to agree upon

some foundations from which to build the production. Would this be a

modernized production of Shakespeare’s play, or would we remain more

traditional in our approach? Would Lear be portrayed literally as a king,

or reinterpreted perhaps as a foreign dictator, politician, or corporate

executive? Does Lear’s “madness” represent a preexisting condition (i.e.

emerging senility), or does his affliction arise from the events of the play

itself? So many more questions abounded, but before moving forward, we

needed to find a starting point.

Through our early conversations, three central concepts emerged:

1. This production would be set in a traditional period for the play

and Lear would be an actual king.

2. Our exploration would focus on the family – a father and his

three daughters – and how the events unfold from personal hurts

and barriers that exist between them.

3. Lear's madness would not be founded on a diagnosis of a

particular illness (eg. Alzheimer's), but rather his mental decline

will emerge in connection to the emotions and events of the play.

With these thoughts in mind, Dennis and I began editing the script in

April of 2014. Our goal was to emphasize clarity of the language for a

modern ear, enhance the action of the story for our production, and create

a version for a cast of 15 actors. After the first edited draft, many questions

remained unanswered. At what point in the Middle Ages would our story

take place? There are many more characters required than actors, so how

much double-casting (actors playing more than one part) would we

employ? Where would we put the intermission? There are several

inconsistencies in Shakespeare’s own timeline of events. The Fool, a

central character, disappears part way through the play with no real

explanation. The final lines of the play are delivered by Albany in the 1608

Quarto edition and Edgar in the 1623 Folio edition – which also disagree

EXPLORATIONS - 18 -

on around 400 other lines of text. It was clear after the first edit that we

had much to discuss as we delved further into our interpretation.

Many more drafts passed between me and Dennis over the next couple of

months. We didn’t have all the answers yet, but we arrived at a draft of

the script that addressed many of the our first questions. We were

fortunate that Shakespeare by the Bow ran during the summer months,

and we asked the cast of The Comedy of Errors to do a one-day reading and

workshop of the script. Not only did it give us a chance to hear the edited

script out loud, but Dennis also staged the opening and closing scenes of

the play as an experiment for a few of his ideas. It was great fun to start

working on our feet, and soon afterwards, Dennis began to cast the actual

production. Of course, we already had our King Lear – the incomparable

Benedict Campbell. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Benedict in many

productions at the Shaw Festival and couldn’t have been more thrilled. He

is, in a word, extraordinary.

September arrived, our season started, and the creative process began to

speed up. We began meeting with our design team. Pam Johnson’s set

design has an additional challenge because it must accommodate two very

different venues: our traditional proscenium stage and the open-ended

Mainstage Tent at Bard on the Beach. Dennis shared a few images of

inspiration: leaves, frost, stone castles, and copper-coloured earth. These

images became very important – they inform the design, which focuses on

the waning days of warmth in early autumn, foreshadowing the cold,

darker precipice of winter. As design discussions continued, I suggested

that we narrow our era down to the early 14th century, just prior to the

Hundred Years’ War. Much like Shakespeare, we don’t focus too hard on

details of historical accuracy, but it’s useful to have a specific time period

as a leaping off point.

In December, we held a “design weekend” with our entire design team

along with our technical director, producer, me, Dennis, and our assistant

director Mike Griffin. The aim over the course of two days was to explore

EXPLORATIONS - 19 -

possibilities. We experimented with the large storm sequence,

Gloucester’s eye-gouging, Kent being put in the stocks, and a few of the

more important staging questions. We spent the weekend going over

every scene and playing on our feet with fans, leaves, fabrics, furniture,

sounds, and music to get our imaginations working. At the end of the

weekend, we had a ton of new ideas to inform the designs.

Then, after all the planning and anticipation, rehearsals start up in

February. As we rehearse with the acting company, more questions arise.

The actors turn the characters into living people and the words spring into

action. Some of our plans must adapt to embrace new discoveries. Every

day is spent exploring the dimensions of this story and the remarkable

truths about our human nature that Shakespeare captures so eloquently

and, at times, brutally. I continue to marvel at how this 400-year-old play

is speaking to us today as it spoke to audiences in ages past.

As I write this, we have our first preview performance this evening. I’m so

excited to sit in the theatre and hear these words and share this play with

our audience.

Image from wikimedia

EXPLORATIONS - 20 -

Nobles and Peasants: The Feudal System

Theatre Calgary’s production of King Lear is set in the Middle Ages, a time

when European society was organized according to a hierarchical

structure known as feudalism. Within this system, power revolved around

the distribution of land and labour. The king was at the top of the

pyramid, anointed by “divine right” directly from God. Below the king

were the nobles such as dukes and earls. Members of the noble class were

often related to the king through marriage. Each noble was granted a

manor and a large tract of land, up to several thousand acres, in return for

their loyalty and service to the king. Below this level were knights and

vassals, who provided their manor lord with their military service and

oversaw smaller parcels of land called fiefs.

In the largest and lowest tier of the hierarchy were peasants, serfs, and

slaves. These were the people who actually farmed the land or worked as

tradesmen. While free peasants could be rent-paying tenants, most

members of this class were serfs and slaves, bound by law to their manor

lord. This pyramid system channeled goods and services from the lower

classes upwards, while the king and the upper classes were to provide

protection and a lawful state for the classes below.

King

Nobility

Knights & Vassals

Peasants, Serfs, & Slaves

EXPLORATIONS - 21 -

Jesters and Fools

The figure of the court fool or

jester has origins dating back to

ancient times and exists in

many cultures. In Britain, the

image of the “motley fool” with

a floppy hat, colourful tunic,

and jingling bells comes from

the medieval era. The fool was a

regular figure in English royal

and noble households up until

the mid-17th century.

There were two different

general categories of fools at the

time: the “natural” fool and the

professional or “licensed” fool.

Natural fools were those seen

as dim-witted or simple-minded, who were unfortunately mocked for

their disabilities. Professional fools, in contrast, were employed to provide

entertainment in the form of jokes, physical comedy, poems, songs, and

humourous banter for members of the household and guests. In many

cases, fools had special license to wittily criticize the actions of their

masters. This freedom gave a unique status to fools and sometimes earned

them positions of great trust with their master. Of course, the license to

criticize also carried a constant threat of being whipped (or worse) for

overstepping one’s bounds.

Shakespeare often portrayed professional fools in his plays, and these

characters are the sources of great wit, music, and comedy. The

Shakespearean fool also tends to provide incisive commentary on the

actions of other characters and wise insights on human nature.

Scott Bellis as the Fool

(Trudie Lee)

EXPLORATIONS - 22 -

Weapons and Warfare

Mike Griffin, assistant director for King Lear, worked with director Dennis

Garnhum, fight directors Haysam Kadri and Karl H. Sine, and the Theatre

Calgary props department to curate the medieval weaponry used in the fights and

battles of the play. Here are some of his research notes:

Strategy

In preparation for battle, war leaders would typically have a war council

meeting to lay out the plan for the battle. On the battlefield, the first stage

would often be the release of the infantry and the archers, with the goal of

breaking down the opponent’s formation. Once a break in formation had

been achieved (and this could take some time), the cavalry would attack,

capitalizing on the opposing side’s loss of cohesion. The cavalry’s position

on horseback gave them a speed and height advantage over footsoldiers.

When there was a retreat, the cavalry would track down the fleeing

soldiers, slaughtering them from their horses.

Battle gear laid out in the rehearsal hall

EXPLORATIONS - 23 -

Weaponry

Broadsword: One of the earliest of the medieval swords, the broadsword

was a long, straight, two-edged blade. The blade ranged from two to three

inches in width and 30 to 45 inches in length.

Falchion: A one-handed, single-edged blade, the falchion had the weight

of an axe but the versatility of a sword. The blade styles varied, but there

was always a curve towards the tip of the blade. Falchions were thought

of as a lower-calibre weapon. They were often wielded by lower-class

soldiers and could be used as tools outside of war times.

Dagger: A double-edged blade, the dagger was often used for stabbing

and thrusting when in close proximity to target.

War Hammer: The war hammer is much larger and heavier than a regular

carpentry hammer, and often had a spike on the back end. War hammers

had a variety of lengths. Longer hammers were used against cavalry to

dismount riders, while shorter hammers were meant for close combat and

could do lots of damage even without piercing the armour.

Bardiche: A short polearm with a curved blade, up to to two feet long.

The weight of the bardiche’s large blade meant that one would need to use

two hands to wield it with authority.

Bow and Arrow: A weapon powered by elasticity, the bow has been used

in war and hunting for thousands of years. Bows were made from a single

piece of wood, often as tall as the archer, with a string connecting both

ends. Archers could carry up to 70 arrows at a time.

Crossbow: The crossbow is a smaller bow mounted sideways on a stock.

It shoots small arrow-like projectiles called bolts. The weapon has a

mechanism that pulls the string back and holds it in place while a bolt is

loaded, and a trigger to fire the bolt. The crossbow was easier to use and

aim than the regular bow and could pierce through a knight’s armour,

making it a powerful weapon for untrained soldiers.

EXPLORATIONS - 24 -

A Textured World An Interview with Deitra Kalyn

As the costume designer for King Lear, Deitra Kalyn conceives the look for each

character, and then works closely with Theatre Calgary’s in-house wardrobe team

to realize her designs and fit them to the performers. With fifteen actors in the

production – many of whom play multiple roles – Deitra and her team have been

hard at work in the months leading up to the fun of the show. We spoke with

Deitra during preview week.

The production is set in the late

middle ages. What excites you

about the clothing of that era?

It’s always exciting to design

something that’s completely

different from our era and not

what audiences are used to

seeing. The research on this era

was lots of fun, and it was a

challenge and a blessing to be

able to have some freedom in the

specific time period of the play.

We decided to set it before the

Hundred Years’ War for a rough

timeline, but the rule on the

costumes was that we would pick

and choose elements from the broader medieval era that would made

everyone look amazing. You'll notice that there is quite a mix of fashion

details in this show, and if you really took a fine-toothed comb to it, you'd

see that we are spanning about 350 years of fashion in this one show!

What visual inspirations did you find for this production?

I kept coming back to images that had an ombré gradient. I was

particularly interested in images that ombré from black to white, with all

King Lear

(Costume rendering by Deitra Kalyn)

EXPLORATIONS - 25 -

the grey in between. I also had a ton of

images of interesting textures. That was

the name of the game on this show – lots

of texture.

There’s lots of battle gear and stage combat in King Lear. What

challenges does that give for you as a costume designer?

Any time there are fights on stage, first and foremost you need to make

sure that the actors are safe.

Especially with a show set in

this era, with all the weapons

and chain mail and helmets. We

also have to make sure that the

actors don’t overheat. The era

requires that the costumes have

a layered and textured feel, so

we have to create that look

while still giving the actors

enough mobility and comfort to

do the movement they need to

do. So it’s a checklist: the actor’s

safety comes first, then the

actor’s ability to move, and after

that comes what I’d like to see

aesthetically. Sometimes it’s

necessary to alter my design in

order to maintain safety on stage.

Changes in status are important for the play. How do you show these

changes with costuming choices?

We’ve done this a few ways. We really pushed the colour transition over

the course of the show. It starts quite bright and cheery and then goes into

a really dark world – then we bring in more white towards the end. We

gave the most rich and luxurious textures to the high-status characters –

Ombré: a fabric pattern

where a light colour blends

gradually into a dark colour

English and French soldiers

(costume rendering by Deitra Kalyn)

EXPLORATIONS - 26 -

the king, his daughters, the noblemen – and put more rough and rugged

textures on the servants and knights. We did quite a lot of breakdown on

those costumes. The breakdown on the knights’ costumes, for example, is

much rougher than anything we did on

Lear's. We wanted to set the high-status

characters apart visually by making them

look cleaner.

Which costume are you most excited to see on stage?

I have small details in all of the costumes that excite me. I especially like

the leather work that was created – I get nerdy about the sheer amount of

work that goes into details like that. Honestly, I like to see all the parts

working together. I get most excited when the actors are in their full garb

– belt, gloves, sword, caps – and all the parts come together to make a

really believable look.

Breakdown: the process

of making costume pieces

look aged or dirty

The Fool and Cordelia

(Costume renderings by Deitra Kalyn)

EXPLORATIONS - 27 -

The Wheel of Fortune

“The wheel has come full circle.” –Edmund in King Lear

The idea of Fortune’s Wheel is frequently referred to in King Lear. A

common motif in medieval art and literature, Fortune is often depicted

allegorically as a blindfolded

goddess, spinning a great wheel

on which man’s fate is

determined. At the turning of

her wheel, some are destined to

rise, while others will suffer

misfortune. In the pages of a

13th-century manuscript of the

Carmina Burana (which was

later set to music in the well-

known classical composition by

Carl Orff), the four human

figures on the wheel are given

the labels regnabo (I shall reign),

regno (I reign), regnavi (I have

reigned) and sum sine regno (I

am without a kingdom).

King Lear undergoes a dramatic fall from fortune over the course of the

play. In fact, all of the characters start at some point on Fortune’s Wheel

and their journeys bring them upwards or downwards as the action of the

play unfolds. For example, the villainous Edmund rises from the very

bottom to the top, only to topple downwards once again. Ultimately, it’s

up to each audience member to decide whether the fates of the characters

are sealed by fate or determined by their own actions.

An image of the Wheel of Fortune from a

13th-century illuminated manuscript of

the Carmina Burana

EXPLORATIONS - 28 -

Elizabethan Astrology

In the first act of King Lear, the Earl of Gloucester refers to “these late

eclipses in the sun and moon” and suggests that they “portend no good to

us.” This is often used as evidence that Shakespeare wrote the play in the

late autumn or winter of 1605, since there had been a lunar eclipse on

September 27 of that year, followed by a total solar eclipse two weeks later

on October 12.

To the Elizabethans, astrological observations were very important. In

general, they believed that the earth was at the centre of the universe and

that the movements of the planets and stars had profound influence on

human behavior and world events. An event such as an eclipse or a

passing comet could be interpreted as an omen of disaster. In fact, the

word disaster literally refers to an unfavourable position of the stars.

It was customary for nobles and upper-class families to hire astrologers to

write horoscopes for their households based on maps of the skies.

Astrologers were consulted about the best dates for elections, coronations,

weddings, and baptisms. Even personal matters such as financial planning

and medical treatment might be decided by consulting the stars.

Shakespeare makes hundreds of references to astrology in his plays. At

the dawn of the 17th century, traditional belief in astrology began to

dwindle in religious, political, and scientific circles, but it remained strong

in common thinking. The older characters in King Lear (Gloucester, Kent,

and Lear) often relate their circumstances to the order of the skies. But the

younger villain Edmund ridicules the idea that “we make guilty of our

disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars,” preferring instead to trust his

fate to his own free will. It’s impossible to say for certain whether

Shakespeare himself believed in astrology, but as a prolific and popular

playwright seeking to please his audience, he often took his cue from

common opinion and the “hot topics” of his day.

CONVERSATIONS - 29 -

Conversation Starters

Who’s most responsible for the tragic events of King Lear?

Does love need to be spoken out loud?

Which do you believe in, fate or free will?

Is Lear mad? At which point or points in the play?

What duties do children have towards their aging parents?

What could you do to prevent intergenerational strife in your family?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where someone else had a job

or a possession that you thought you deserved? What did you do?

Like many characters in classical drama, both Lear and Gloucester gain a

better understanding of the world they live in after losing everything.

Have you ever learned something important from loss?

The Royal Reading List

Back in the fall, we asked Benedict Campbell what books he was reading

as he started to prepare for the title role in King Lear. Here are a few:

Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda, an award-winning Canadian novel

that tells an epic 17th-century tale through the eyes of a Jesuit

missionary, a teenage Iroquois girl, and a grieving Huron warrior.

Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, a novel that transports the story

of King Lear to a modern-day farm in Iowa.

Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman, which tells

the true story of a clinically insane man who contributed nearly ten

thousand definitions to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Peter Brook’s The Empty Space, the English theatre director’s

classic reflection on deadly, holy, rough, and immediate theatre.

Another suggestion is Christopher Moore’s Fool, an inventive and

irreverent novel that tells the story of the play from the Fool’s perspective.

CONVERSATIONS - 30 -

Movie Night

There are several film versions of King Lear and countless works inspired

by Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Here’s a small selection:

King Lear

Dir. Michael Elliott, 1983. This made-for-TV film stars actor Laurence

Olivier as Lear in one of his last performances of Shakespeare.

Ran

Dir. Akira Kurasawa, 1985. This samurai epic by the grandmaster

Kurosawa tells the story of a warlord who tries to divide his kingdom

between his three sons. The title Ran means “rebellion” or “confused.”

King Lear

Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1987. An eclectic, avant-garde, and very loose

adaptation by the French New Wave director, this film takes place at a

resort in Switzerland after a nuclear apocalypse. Burgess Meredith plays

the gangster Don Learo, Molly Ringwald plays Cordelia, and Peter Sellars

stars as William Shakespeare Jr. the Fifth.

King of Texas

Dir. Uli Edel, 2002. Patrick Stewart stars as cattle baron John Lear in this

adaptation set in the Old West.

King Lear

Dir. Trevor Nunn, 2008. Ian McKellen stars in this film version featuring

the cast of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2007 production. Watch it

online: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/king-lear-watch-the-play/487/

Game of Thrones

Based on the books by George R.R. Martin, 2011-present. The HBO series

features as much bloodshed and betrayal as any Shakespearean tragedy,

and like our production of King Lear, it’s set in a visual landscape inspired

by late Middle Ages.

CONVERSATIONS - 31 -

Sources

Cardona, Debra. “King Lear Study Guide.” Prepared for the Classical

Theatre of Harlem, 2006.

Crystal, Ben. Springboard Shakespeare: King Lear Before, During, After.

London: Bloomsbury, 2013.

Davies, Oliver Ford. Playing Lear. London: Nick Hern, 2003.

Dersin, Denise, ed. What Life Was Like in the Age of Chivalry. Alexandria,

VA: Time-Life, 1997.

Ditchfield, P.H. “Superstition, Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare’s

Day.” In The England of Shakespeare.London: Methuen, 1917.

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/superstition.html

Freeman, Neil, ed. The Applause First Folio of Shakespeare in Modern Type.

New York: Applause, 2001.

“The History of King Lear.” Wikipedia. Accessed Feb 4, 2015.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_King_Lear

Kenyon, Sherrilyn. The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages.

Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest, 1995.

Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England. London:

Vintage, 2009.

Otto, Beatrice K.. Fools are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/640914.html

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. R.A. Foakes. London: Bloomsbury

Arden Shakespeare (3rd series), 1997.

Stratford Festival. “King Lear Study Guide.” 2014.

http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/education/teachers.aspx?id=8610