In considering Lear, I've been fascinated by Edgar and Kent. Their loyalty, their dogged devotion and their self-disguise. And in the case of Edgar particularly, the disguises that are necessary for children to take on in order to approach and relate to a parent.
We all deny ourselves to fit with family to some extent. Edgar and Kent are extreme cases, and the latter is not a blood relative. But Cordelia bravely and perhaps stubbornly doesn't fashion herself to her father, and suffers exile as a result.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Ruminations on Plays
Well, it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been reading lots of plays - Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg.
And by Horton Foote, Dividing the Estate.
And King Lear.
Also saw August: Osage Country on Broadway, which sort of kicked off this round of thinking.
Been consdering some obvious points: how central family is to drama (and comedy for that matter.) And the question that I use to interrogate new plays these days : if the characters are not related, why? What I really see is not necessarily that wholesale dysfunction is all that interests us. But that we don't know who we are except in relationships, and the family provides the tonic and dominant notes in the symphony of self.
More on this soon.
And by Horton Foote, Dividing the Estate.
And King Lear.
Also saw August: Osage Country on Broadway, which sort of kicked off this round of thinking.
Been consdering some obvious points: how central family is to drama (and comedy for that matter.) And the question that I use to interrogate new plays these days : if the characters are not related, why? What I really see is not necessarily that wholesale dysfunction is all that interests us. But that we don't know who we are except in relationships, and the family provides the tonic and dominant notes in the symphony of self.
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