Steve Mentz

THE BOOKFISH

THALASSOLOGY, SHAKESPEARE, AND SWIMMING

  • Home
  • Steve Mentz
  • Humanities Commons
  • Public Writing
  • The sea! the sea!
  • The Bookfish
  • St. Johns

Songs of Lear by Song of the Goat Theatre (Teatr Piesn Kozla)

February 27, 2015 by Steve Mentz 2 Comments

Yale Rep poster

Yale Rep poster

About a third of the way through this riveting, devastating performance, director/conductor Grzegorz Bral introduced the next song or “painting” by saying that Cordelia’s experience in the love test had been nothing new. The king had been betraying his daughter for years. An actor came forward and sat in a chair, surrounded by the other nine actors dressed in black. She sang the same lines three different times: as a four year old, a twelve-year old, and the seventeen year old princess who opens the play:

The jewels of our father, with wash’d eyes

Cordelia leaves you.[…]

Love well our father

To your professed bosoms I commit him

But yet, alas, stood I within his grace

I would prefer him to a better place. (1.1.268-74)

Cordelia and the Fool

Cordelia and the Fool

Rich harmonies swelled up behind the seated singer from the chanting cast. Tears glistened on her face. Words hung in the air, deepened and changed through repetition: “jewels” “love” “commit” “grace.” Fear and love became anger and — perhaps? — resignation.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a more moving five minutes of theater. I am sure I’ll never hear those lines the same way again. See better, Lear!

This production, which won all the awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012 and, as its own website notes, “has already passed into legend,” wasn’t a version of King Lear so much as a series of song-paintings that engage some primary moments. Gloucester got a brilliant drum solo but kept his eyes, and the parts of Lear, Cordelia, and the Fool occupied center stage. The twelve sections included lyrics based on Gregorian chants as well as Shakespeare’s play.

Lear’s curse to Goneril was another highlight, with some interesting overlap between Cordelia and her evil sister.

I’m listening to the CD over and over right now, wishing the next two nights weren’t sold out so that I could go again. I also like this You Tube trailer.

Some friends of mine in San Francisco have been telling me for a while that Poland has the best avant-garde theater in the world. Now I know what they’re talking about.images

To the list of companies who I’d pay to see do anything, anywhere, any time, I’ll now add Song of the Goat.

ticket

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Comments

  1. J says

    March 28, 2016 at 11:46 am

    Please! Where can I find the cd? I´m looking for it since I saw the show!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Makbet and the Art of Compression says:
    February 28, 2019 at 12:23 am

    […] and shook the door, during the musical refrains, partly inspired, I learned later, by the amazing Song of the Goat company from Poland that I saw in New Haven a few years ago. The wrench of emotional compression […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About Steve

Steve Mentz
Professor of English
St. John’s University
Read Bio

Pages

  • Coastal Studies Reading Group
  • Public Writing
  • OCEAN Publicity
  • Audio and Video Recordings
  • Oceanic New York
  • #shax2022 s31: Rethinking the Early Modern Literary Caribbbean
  • #SAA 2020: Watery Thinking
  • Creating Nature: May 2019 at the Folger
  • Published Work
  • #pluralizetheanthropocene

Recent Posts

  • Othello on Broadway
  • Books of ’24
  • “We Are Your Robots” at Tfana
  • Branagh’s King Lear at the Shed
  • Colombari’s “Everything That Rises” in Brooklyn

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in