King Lear was successfully presented by Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music, Japan
On the evening of October 21st, 2017, King Lear was successfully presented by Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music (Japan) at the Proscenium Stage Theatre in Changping Campus of the Central Academy of Drama (CAD), which was a new “King Lear” featured by traditional and national characteristics. As the play director, President Terufumi Koshimitsu presented the play in an innovative way. The two monologues of English opening and Chinese ending shocked the hearts of the people, which were enough to see how great efforts the actors had made. After the performance, the audience from all over the world gave them enthusiastic and prolonged applause.
The director intentionally set a story within a story in this play. The play annouced the opening with two characters（director and assistant director）standing on the iron rack covered by red carpet. The name of the play is "King Lear: Doppelgängers in Contemporary Society". The assistant director, who played the role that connected scenes, was able to take the audience back to the reality from the play through reading a thought-provoking monologue when the audience were enjoying and immersed in the play. Such design skillfully connected the drama with human life and highlighted the real existence of “King Lear” in modern society.
Within just 60 minutes, the director interweaved two main lines of plots together, King Lear and three daughters as well as Gloucester and his two sons. The fragments selected which completely expressed the emotional changes of the two frustrated old men, made the play extremely moving when the two elderly men encountered each other finally in a stormy night. Twelve actors on the stage, dressing in traditional Japanese costumes and wearing colorful masks, depicted the characters with different personalities through various performance skills, such as Japanese Kabuki, Noh and powerful body movements. The director subtly used the masks to show Lear’s two daughters’ attitudinal change to their father. Separated by the shadow, King Lear would suffer from different feelings at every sight to their daughters.
Another old man, Gloucester, was also brutally betrayed by his son. He was even exiled to a strange land, with eyes being stabbed. The two men eventually knew who was really loyal to him and loved him, but it was too late. Each sound strike in the play meant a kind of cry. The opening or closing of iron rack on the stage represented a very different fate. The audience, with their senses stimulated, enjoyed a different kind of viewing experience as the director mobilized the entire body of the performers through strong light, desperated roar and angry fighting. Finally, all the performers revived and the audience was taken back to the reality. As the opening remarks, "Life is an illusion, like a poor actor."
