Went to opening night of Melbourne Theatre Company’s King Lear. It was a fairly traditional rendering transposed into modern-day clothes (kings and courtiers as rich besuited corporate bosses, interesting casting of Aaron Pedersen as Edmund) with a very versatile set. I enjoyed it a great deal. Had a slightly odd encounter with an old acquaintance Jason Romney afterwards, but you get that.
Still trying to work through the political ramifications of Edmund as an indigenous man half-acknowledged as the bastard son of an Anglo courtier who then decieves and connives his way into the beds of two princesses, has his father declared a traitor and his brother, the ‘legitimate’ heir, declared a criminal hunted throughout the land. The speech about being base and the notion of ‘legitimacy’ carried especial weight given this casting, as did Pedersen’s Australian accent when other cast members were doing Scottish and Irish accents and the ‘police’ at the end of act three were in British uniforms.
But then, as usual, I may just be reading too much into it.
I was also amused by trying to work out who the guy playing Regan (Alison Whyte)‘s hubby was… kept thinking it was John Waters (ex-Playschool, bwahaha) but it was David Roberts (ex-Matrix Revolutions).
Got home to find flowers on the doorstep from my parents! Yay! Thanks guys.