King Lear successfully performed by the Central Academy of Drama, China

As the first performing university in the World Theatre Education Alliance 2017 International Theatre Festival, the Central Academy of Drama, China brought the audience a new King Lear at the Proscenium Stage Theatre in Changping Campus of the Central Academy of Drama on the evening of October 20th, 2017. The play dug into the inner world of King Lear. The audience was deeply impressed by the dark light penetrating from a huge baffle on the stage. The performance gained the cheers and applauses from the spectators of different countries at the scene.

This performance just retained the plotline of King Lear and his three daughters and omitted multifarious backgrounds and characters, which was quite different from the previous "King Lear". Therefore, the audience could sense the psychological course that King Lear did lost his mind step by step. At the beginning of the play, two Lears appeared, sitting in the darkness among the auditorium.The audience could not help thinking who was the real Lear? The director showed two incompatible Lears. They argued, struggled hard and tried to dominate each other. The design of two Lears seemed as the division of reason and instinct. Nobody knows who is right or who is wrong. The exteriorization of Lear’s inner world made him no longer decrepit and muddleheaded, but extending its richness fully.

Under his strong appearance in this play, Lear was like a wayward child, longing for more love, care, forgiveness and understanding. Be aware of his own anility, King Lear already understood that time is irreversible. Severable right to his three daughters may be an excuse for himself. He hoped his daughters could give him glory. But the sweet moment was like a dream, instantly falling into reality.

Without various material objects on the stage, the whole play was performed with simple stage property, leaving more free space for performers. The sensitive and vulnerable part in the deepest and innermost mind was exposed on the stage when the camouflage was uncovered in the eyes of the audience. Erecting straight on the stage, the huge black baffle brought the audience a sense of oppression. A soft golden ribbon, extending out from the back of the stage, brought a mysterious power. A kind of darkness and coldness was presented in the overall stage.

In addition, the director broke the boundaries of the traditional stage, with the performance area extending to the auditorium. Lear was not just an isolated character on the stage. He was kind of ourselves. Such setting seemed a lot of secrets were hidden on the stage. However, when the black baffle was raised slowly in the roar, the play showed greater openness, which a specific part of Lear’s heart hard to be filled. A sense of nihility arose spontaneously.