King Lear Being Successfully Performed by State Institute of Performing Arts, Russia

On the evening of October 23rd, 2017, Russian State Institute of Performing Arts brought the audience a simple and rustic "King Lear" with distinctive characteristics of Russian dramatic art at the proscenium stage in Changping Campus of the Central Academy of Drama. The play was directed by Professor Andrei Andreyev. The whole play was performed in an excellent form and performance level was exquisite. Stage design and art was full of creation. After the performance, the audience from all over the world showed a standing ovation and the atmosphere was warmly active.

It is worth mentioning that only two students are majored in Acting and other students are majored in Directing. Each student majoring in directing just directed one scene. Then all the scenes were compiled into a complete repertoire. Students tried their best to understand the characters in Shakespeare's works with their own feelings, bodies and individual interpretation. Based on Stanislavsky theory and in accordance with  the tradition of Russia "psychodrama", this play achieved its purpose of performance through improvisations surrounding and dissociating from theatrical performance. This tragedy was also about studying ruined family life. The performing team also participated in two drama plays in the absurd theatre script. They knew that it was inevitable to adopt a satirical theater style for Shakespeare's works.

The play used a variety of theatrical art methods, such as lighting and music. Even so, the director thought that drama should be based on drama text. The director just abridged a little and didn’t make modification of play text. Not only the plotline of King Lear and his three daughters but also the plotline of Earl of Gloucester and his two sons were clearly presented to the audience. In terms of performance form, they sought to break the fourth wall through  labeling names on characters’ heads, the Fool’s communication with the audience as well as Edmund’s return to the stage. In terms of the stage installation, the director ingeniously used a timpani instead of a table. All the stories took place around the Timpani. The drumbeats became the driving force to promote the development of all stories. As an important stage fulcrum, the drumbeats were the symbol of the collusion between Narire and Edmund,  the ward bed in white sheet that crazy Lear fell down as well as  the fighting arena  of Edmund and Edgar. During the "Storm" Scene, Lear knocked at the Timpani in anger and nakedness, with rain pouring down to beat his heart. At the same time, the “raindrops” scattered on the stage indicated the final collapse of family ties, the dissolution of wife and children as well as the fate of destroyed families.

The whole play showed various improvisations, like the fighting between Edmund and Edgar. They fought against each other several times from the auditorium to to the front stage. Finally, they had a hand wrestling before the Timpani. The fighting means changed from chairs, steel tubes to spring knives.The method of breaking the audience’s pre-setting  made the comedy greatly enhanced, which was in line with the director's satirical theater style. At the end, Cordelia's body was placed in front of King Lear, but he did not believe that the only daughter truly loving him would die. He helped Cordelia's body erected three times. A few seconds later, it fell down. Repeated movements and actors’ perfect performance were in line with the original story setting and character’s logicality. In addition, it was look more delicate, clean and powerful than that of the audience expected.

The "King Lear" performed by State Institute of Performing Arts, Russia, not only fully demonstrated the solid basic skills and strong stage explosive power of the performers, but also demonstrated their rich experiences and bold innovations in rehearsal process and teaching practice. After the play, the enduring applause was the biggest affirmation to the play.