Photo: Vlada Nebo
King Lear. There were moments I regretted having chosen it. So sprawling. All the intrigue of the subplot with Gloucester and his sons Edmund and Edgar. The sisters and their husbands. All of Lear's landholding (and of course the divvying up of it all). The Fool who is less of a fool and more of a moderator or therapist for a Master too witless to see the joke. Politics, war, France! A lot to wrangle. And then of course there is the task of realising the piece with multiple players in a number of certain roles (because it's a student production and the group of theatre-makers-in-the-making is large).
But the play has always compelled me.
Women driven to violence and then devastating regret.
Eyes taken out by spoons - the stuff of Dark Clown - obscene and absurd.
This is the latest in a series of posts on Clown Dramaturgy. If you click on Clown Dramaturgy in the Categories to the right – you can see, via a number of posts, a progression of the Clown Dramaturgy methods I use and develop each year (well, you'll see them going backwards in time as the link will show you the latest post first). This production happens as part of the module I teach on the amazing RADA Theatre Lab MA. (During the module I teach both Clown and Commedia and then devise and direct a classic text as approached through Clown. This post is only about the 'classic text meets clowning' work, not the commedia work – I might need to write another post on Commedia some time).
People who know me know that I want the story (and the dialogue and the diction) to be clear (Clarity is one of my C-words). If I can’t understand what I am being shown, I cannot feel.
Exception: when a show is evoking something ineffable and they have captured / manifested that very well, that is a different thing.
But when you are sitting in the audience and you find yourself mentally going: ‘Oh, I see, I think that must mean …’ - that's when one is no longer in the moment and one is no longer in the body, where the breath and emotions are; one is intellectualising mode.
When I work in 'red nose clown' I want it to be funny and I want it to be poignant also. (There can be wryness and satire and other qualities too).
Use what’s clear and quirky (when adapting classic text for clown)
'Spoons', I said to myself.
In the creation, I elicit and include the students’ suggestions and desires, using the Clown Council process (you can see that described in other Clown Dramaturgy posts), which, together with welcoming arising offers from the cohort ongoingly, brings to light the tilt we will take on the classic text and the details in the playing out of it.
But I also usually arrive with a ballpark proposal/inciting concept.
I can’t help it. Once I choose a text, my mind / my imagination starts working.
I am transparent about what I am bringing and check that the cohort find what I suggest is appealing. Luckily they did.
I had already bought three dozen metal spoons.
Lear would have a crown of spoons. People could play them percussively, to suggest the horses and create other moods. We introduced them in the prologue:
CHORUS OF SHELL-SHOCKED CLOWNS (assembled onstage)
Sfx: Spoons pattering on thighs, then sudden silence
CHORUS speaks in unison):
This is the terrible tale of King Lear
A story - of family gone wrong
A story - of short sightedness spoons on eyes
A failure to think through consequences spoons twirling around brain
But the play has always compelled me.
Women driven to violence and then devastating regret.
Eyes taken out by spoons - the stuff of Dark Clown - obscene and absurd.
This is the latest in a series of posts on Clown Dramaturgy. If you click on Clown Dramaturgy in the Categories to the right – you can see, via a number of posts, a progression of the Clown Dramaturgy methods I use and develop each year (well, you'll see them going backwards in time as the link will show you the latest post first). This production happens as part of the module I teach on the amazing RADA Theatre Lab MA. (During the module I teach both Clown and Commedia and then devise and direct a classic text as approached through Clown. This post is only about the 'classic text meets clowning' work, not the commedia work – I might need to write another post on Commedia some time).
People who know me know that I want the story (and the dialogue and the diction) to be clear (Clarity is one of my C-words). If I can’t understand what I am being shown, I cannot feel.
Exception: when a show is evoking something ineffable and they have captured / manifested that very well, that is a different thing.
But when you are sitting in the audience and you find yourself mentally going: ‘Oh, I see, I think that must mean …’ - that's when one is no longer in the moment and one is no longer in the body, where the breath and emotions are; one is intellectualising mode.
When I work in 'red nose clown' I want it to be funny and I want it to be poignant also. (There can be wryness and satire and other qualities too).
Use what’s clear and quirky (when adapting classic text for clown)
'Spoons', I said to myself.
In the creation, I elicit and include the students’ suggestions and desires, using the Clown Council process (you can see that described in other Clown Dramaturgy posts), which, together with welcoming arising offers from the cohort ongoingly, brings to light the tilt we will take on the classic text and the details in the playing out of it.
But I also usually arrive with a ballpark proposal/inciting concept.
I can’t help it. Once I choose a text, my mind / my imagination starts working.
I am transparent about what I am bringing and check that the cohort find what I suggest is appealing. Luckily they did.
I had already bought three dozen metal spoons.
Lear would have a crown of spoons. People could play them percussively, to suggest the horses and create other moods. We introduced them in the prologue:
CHORUS OF SHELL-SHOCKED CLOWNS (assembled onstage)
Sfx: Spoons pattering on thighs, then sudden silence
CHORUS speaks in unison):
This is the terrible tale of King Lear
A story - of family gone wrong
A story - of short sightedness spoons on eyes
A failure to think through consequences spoons twirling around brain
We all have our moments of blindness. Photo: Vlada Nebo
Use your confusion (to help you clarify)
There’s a scene full of characters right at the top of Shakespeare's play. Who the heck is who?
In the first scene (after the prologue) we have the opportunity/obligation to establish all the characters and get their needs clarified and embodied.
It’s fun to be reductive and obvious ...
Lear: Hello, my good friend Gloucester.
Gloucester: Hello, my good King Lear.
... with the greater purpose of clearly laying out the land, so the audience know where they are.
Find good physical metaphors (and visual elements)
In the Clown Council, one clown was perplexed as to what a coxcomb was. 'It’s a comb to brush the tail of a rooster,' someone said, getting up to demonstrate it. and just like that, the image of a rooster was in the circle. I asked if there was a prop/costume maker in the room and there was. The person who seemed most apt for our production's Fool was the class wise-cracker. I asked if he would be interested in playing the Fool dressed as a rooster.
In Shakespeare's original, the Fool tells parables with egg imagery:
Nuncle, give me an egg, and I'll give thee two crowns.’
I bought a few rubber eggs as well.
Comedy does not age well - clown adaptations need to re-craft jokes. Shakespeare's once hilarious words were replaced, in our adaptation, with a new clutch* of egg puns and cock puns**.
*I know.
** I know!
In the first big scene, Lear forces the sisters to compete.
If you stay alert, well-chosen metaphors begin to aggregate and support each other.
We had spoons and so (fortuitious joy!) an egg and spoon race sprung to mind as we approached the sisters in the first scene.
Be stupid, be simple, choose words with funny sounds
Lear: I, King Lear, intend to divide my kingdom into three, with a competition called “Which Daughter Gets What?”
Storytelling clown: And the winner gets the best part: Essex, Wessex, and Sussex.
Servant clown: The runner up gets the next best part, Chester, Leicester. And Hull.
Lear: And the loser gets…
Story and Servant clowns together: Slough.
Lear: Bring forth the eggs!
Rooster/Fool: What? Hewey, Lewey and Dewey??
Servant runs toward USL to deliver the eggs onto the spoons,
but stops because Lear is making a speech.
Lear: These eggs represent your love for me, your daddy, the King. The shell represents the strength of our royal family bonds. The yolk represents the months in your mother’s precious womb.
A Beat. Sisters embarrassed, or eye rolling.
Servant starts to deliver eggs upstage.
The white! ... Servant returns.
represents the virtue of a low cholesterol breakfast.
Servant again starts toward USL to deliver the eggs ...
Lear: Also!
Servant runs back (Lear is still not done!)
Lear: The egg looks like an eye.*** Which represents clarity of vision and good judgement.
Lear holds egg in front of his eye, then crows like a rooster.
Fool: (referring to Lear crowing) Hey that’s my line!
Lear: Daughters! Saddle up! ****
*** Bonus: eggs look like eye balls.
**** Two performers played Regan and two played Goneril - the cast decided a piggy pack race would be more ridiculous as well as more onerously cruel. Underscoring her isolation, Cordelia was unique. While the others vyed and strained, Cordelia just walked the race.
At a certain point, underlining his dismissal of Cordelia, Lear throws an egg. The assembled gasp and the Rooster is traumatised. The egg is caught by the Rooster/Fool and all the assembled heartwarmingly exhale, focused on the Fool's tender relief that the egg is safe.
Leaving Cordelia, again, ignored by all, in an isolated area onstage. For me, this makes poignancy without sentimentality.
There’s a scene full of characters right at the top of Shakespeare's play. Who the heck is who?
In the first scene (after the prologue) we have the opportunity/obligation to establish all the characters and get their needs clarified and embodied.
It’s fun to be reductive and obvious ...
Lear: Hello, my good friend Gloucester.
Gloucester: Hello, my good King Lear.
... with the greater purpose of clearly laying out the land, so the audience know where they are.
Find good physical metaphors (and visual elements)
In the Clown Council, one clown was perplexed as to what a coxcomb was. 'It’s a comb to brush the tail of a rooster,' someone said, getting up to demonstrate it. and just like that, the image of a rooster was in the circle. I asked if there was a prop/costume maker in the room and there was. The person who seemed most apt for our production's Fool was the class wise-cracker. I asked if he would be interested in playing the Fool dressed as a rooster.
In Shakespeare's original, the Fool tells parables with egg imagery:
Nuncle, give me an egg, and I'll give thee two crowns.’
I bought a few rubber eggs as well.
Comedy does not age well - clown adaptations need to re-craft jokes. Shakespeare's once hilarious words were replaced, in our adaptation, with a new clutch* of egg puns and cock puns**.
*I know.
** I know!
In the first big scene, Lear forces the sisters to compete.
If you stay alert, well-chosen metaphors begin to aggregate and support each other.
We had spoons and so (fortuitious joy!) an egg and spoon race sprung to mind as we approached the sisters in the first scene.
Be stupid, be simple, choose words with funny sounds
Lear: I, King Lear, intend to divide my kingdom into three, with a competition called “Which Daughter Gets What?”
Storytelling clown: And the winner gets the best part: Essex, Wessex, and Sussex.
Servant clown: The runner up gets the next best part, Chester, Leicester. And Hull.
Lear: And the loser gets…
Story and Servant clowns together: Slough.
Lear: Bring forth the eggs!
Rooster/Fool: What? Hewey, Lewey and Dewey??
Servant runs toward USL to deliver the eggs onto the spoons,
but stops because Lear is making a speech.
Lear: These eggs represent your love for me, your daddy, the King. The shell represents the strength of our royal family bonds. The yolk represents the months in your mother’s precious womb.
A Beat. Sisters embarrassed, or eye rolling.
Servant starts to deliver eggs upstage.
The white! ... Servant returns.
represents the virtue of a low cholesterol breakfast.
Servant again starts toward USL to deliver the eggs ...
Lear: Also!
Servant runs back (Lear is still not done!)
Lear: The egg looks like an eye.*** Which represents clarity of vision and good judgement.
Lear holds egg in front of his eye, then crows like a rooster.
Fool: (referring to Lear crowing) Hey that’s my line!
Lear: Daughters! Saddle up! ****
*** Bonus: eggs look like eye balls.
**** Two performers played Regan and two played Goneril - the cast decided a piggy pack race would be more ridiculous as well as more onerously cruel. Underscoring her isolation, Cordelia was unique. While the others vyed and strained, Cordelia just walked the race.
At a certain point, underlining his dismissal of Cordelia, Lear throws an egg. The assembled gasp and the Rooster is traumatised. The egg is caught by the Rooster/Fool and all the assembled heartwarmingly exhale, focused on the Fool's tender relief that the egg is safe.
Leaving Cordelia, again, ignored by all, in an isolated area onstage. For me, this makes poignancy without sentimentality.
The Fool - a real coxcomb. Photo: Vlada Nebo Lear the Musical
I usually ask early on for song suggestions as well as throwing a few in myself. There was much interest in songs and they accrued! This group were keen and talented singers and some are musicians, too. During the egg and spoon race, this C & W song underscored the ludicrousness of what Lear is forcing everyone to do and emphasises Cordelia's loss of everything. We chose to sing it much faster, so it was like those fast horse race callers or those very skilful auctioneers (ha, google showed me this C&W plus auctioneering call!)
Elevate the underdog
In the Clown Council, one clown stood and asked: 'What's up with Kent? He's always there and Lear never recognises him.'
In the first scene Lear dismisses him 'Peace, Kent!'. And Kent brightly tells the audience to remember him. Always upbeat, she will repeat this gag each time Kent appears until finally shunned and shoved out from the hovel in the storm, Kent finally has a musical moment.
(Gentle rain: as sfx, slow circular spoon grinding from the ensemble)
Kent: (singing to 'I'm just Ken')
Doesn't seem to matter what I do
I'm always number two (or 302)
No one knows how hard I tried, oh-oh, I
I have feelings that I can't explain
Drivin' me insane
All my life, been so polite
Always ignored what a slight
'Cause I'm just KenT, (all on stage also sing KenT, vent etc) watching an old man cry and vent
Is it my destiny to live and die a life of bland civility?
I'm just KenT
Into the back ground I just blend.
What will it take for Lear to see the man who’s loyal and acknowledge me?
Short pause.
LEAR: Are you still there?
KENT: Yes!
Beat.
LEAR: Stop singing.
But we're getting ahead of the story.
As part of the process, I invite people to bring forth sections of text they like - either from the original play or from other text. One student is taken by an Act 1 reference to 'Lear and his train' and asks: 'Can I play the train?' This warms my heart so much. [The Clown April de Angelis was once approached by Peter Hall about a production of Waiting for Godot. He met her in the cafeteria at the National Theatre and asked her what she would like to play. Angela said 'I would like to play the tree'. Hall did not understand the pure clown genius of this.] The train-proposing student found a toy train with a handle and enlisted Servant Clown and Storytelling Clown as fellow members of the train.
I usually ask early on for song suggestions as well as throwing a few in myself. There was much interest in songs and they accrued! This group were keen and talented singers and some are musicians, too. During the egg and spoon race, this C & W song underscored the ludicrousness of what Lear is forcing everyone to do and emphasises Cordelia's loss of everything. We chose to sing it much faster, so it was like those fast horse race callers or those very skilful auctioneers (ha, google showed me this C&W plus auctioneering call!)
Elevate the underdog
In the Clown Council, one clown stood and asked: 'What's up with Kent? He's always there and Lear never recognises him.'
In the first scene Lear dismisses him 'Peace, Kent!'. And Kent brightly tells the audience to remember him. Always upbeat, she will repeat this gag each time Kent appears until finally shunned and shoved out from the hovel in the storm, Kent finally has a musical moment.
(Gentle rain: as sfx, slow circular spoon grinding from the ensemble)
Kent: (singing to 'I'm just Ken')
Doesn't seem to matter what I do
I'm always number two (or 302)
No one knows how hard I tried, oh-oh, I
I have feelings that I can't explain
Drivin' me insane
All my life, been so polite
Always ignored what a slight
'Cause I'm just KenT, (all on stage also sing KenT, vent etc) watching an old man cry and vent
Is it my destiny to live and die a life of bland civility?
I'm just KenT
Into the back ground I just blend.
What will it take for Lear to see the man who’s loyal and acknowledge me?
Short pause.
LEAR: Are you still there?
KENT: Yes!
Beat.
LEAR: Stop singing.
But we're getting ahead of the story.
As part of the process, I invite people to bring forth sections of text they like - either from the original play or from other text. One student is taken by an Act 1 reference to 'Lear and his train' and asks: 'Can I play the train?' This warms my heart so much. [The Clown April de Angelis was once approached by Peter Hall about a production of Waiting for Godot. He met her in the cafeteria at the National Theatre and asked her what she would like to play. Angela said 'I would like to play the tree'. Hall did not understand the pure clown genius of this.] The train-proposing student found a toy train with a handle and enlisted Servant Clown and Storytelling Clown as fellow members of the train.
Lear and his train Photo: Vlada Nebo
Lear sending his train away. Photo Vlada Nebo
Use and develop the metaphors and visual elements
The play's theme of moral short-sightness was amplified by our doddery Gloucester who wore his glasses on top of his head and so could never find them.
Gloucester: My sons are writing to each other. How sweet. patting torso for glasses I think the legitimate is writing to the Bastard … or is the bastard writing to the legitimate? … throw hands up ... Now if only I had my glasses ...
We got great mileage from that train. The train driver found a sweet wooden whistle which was perfect comic punctuation, coming in at a number of moments like a lovely nudge in the ribs.
One cruel sister's command that the train must be halved had the back clown leave the playing space and the other one to kneel (one and a half is half of three). The other cruel sister questions the need for a train at all and Lear caves and complies. There was further scene, close to the advent of the storm - so poignant - where the train driver releases the train into the wilderness, scooting it forward and saying 'gwan git!' - played with heartbreaking emotion.
The predicament of the Fool is dark material, told in comedy (well, and tragedy, too). You'll see here in the script - through annotation, punctuation and notes, my attention to rhythm and comedic beats (yes, including wing beats). Also alternate lines prepared, dependant on audience response.
Fool: rooster sound : Cock a doodle do!
Chicken-sounding voice on the ‘I’: I … am what you call a fool 3 beats of wings
Turn SL
A Joker, a Jester. An indentured comedy maker legs legs legs (he wore long chicken leg socks)
A coxcomb bow head to show comb and shake it
blllllllllll. *****
I might look silly.
But my work is no laughing matter.
It’s cockadoodle do. Or die. Or in my case … do … or fry.
Do or fry, get it … 'fry'.
If no laugh. Well, that laid an egg.
***** adding sound to a movement can make the different between laughter and lack of laughter.
We see this selfish old man taking advantage of and ignoring his supporters. (see the Kent scene above).
The play's theme of moral short-sightness was amplified by our doddery Gloucester who wore his glasses on top of his head and so could never find them.
Gloucester: My sons are writing to each other. How sweet. patting torso for glasses I think the legitimate is writing to the Bastard … or is the bastard writing to the legitimate? … throw hands up ... Now if only I had my glasses ...
We got great mileage from that train. The train driver found a sweet wooden whistle which was perfect comic punctuation, coming in at a number of moments like a lovely nudge in the ribs.
One cruel sister's command that the train must be halved had the back clown leave the playing space and the other one to kneel (one and a half is half of three). The other cruel sister questions the need for a train at all and Lear caves and complies. There was further scene, close to the advent of the storm - so poignant - where the train driver releases the train into the wilderness, scooting it forward and saying 'gwan git!' - played with heartbreaking emotion.
The predicament of the Fool is dark material, told in comedy (well, and tragedy, too). You'll see here in the script - through annotation, punctuation and notes, my attention to rhythm and comedic beats (yes, including wing beats). Also alternate lines prepared, dependant on audience response.
Fool: rooster sound : Cock a doodle do!
Chicken-sounding voice on the ‘I’: I … am what you call a fool 3 beats of wings
Turn SL
A Joker, a Jester. An indentured comedy maker legs legs legs (he wore long chicken leg socks)
A coxcomb bow head to show comb and shake it
blllllllllll. *****
I might look silly.
But my work is no laughing matter.
It’s cockadoodle do. Or die. Or in my case … do … or fry.
Do or fry, get it … 'fry'.
If no laugh. Well, that laid an egg.
***** adding sound to a movement can make the different between laughter and lack of laughter.
We see this selfish old man taking advantage of and ignoring his supporters. (see the Kent scene above).
In the shelter with 'Poor Tom' and the Fool during the storm. Photo: Vlada Nebo
Seeing it through
We saw through the journey of the spoons. In the scene where Kent battles with Oswald we are following through on the underdog's presence in the tale - thanks to our fabulous students who served as makers. This small scene continued to point up the message of pointless enmity.
We saw through the journey of the spoons. In the scene where Kent battles with Oswald we are following through on the underdog's presence in the tale - thanks to our fabulous students who served as makers. This small scene continued to point up the message of pointless enmity.
The spoons had their major moment, with Gloucester. The ruthless sisters and husbands show their greed and there is a dark clown predicament for Oswald - being forced to to the horrific thing.
Seeing****** it further through
But the spoons continued in a telling of Edgar in Poor Tom mode helping his blinded dad. I know in reality the scene happens on flat land - but the ensemble made a cliff while they quietly sang Miley Cyrus's 'The Climb'.
****** I know.
But the spoons continued in a telling of Edgar in Poor Tom mode helping his blinded dad. I know in reality the scene happens on flat land - but the ensemble made a cliff while they quietly sang Miley Cyrus's 'The Climb'.
****** I know.
'The Climb' - little spoon takes dad spoon up to the 'top of the cliff' - a beautiful puppetry moment nourished by a workshop session with #BlindSummit, Photo: Vlada: Nebo
There was so much more - the sisters in therapy singing Spoonful - check the lyrics!! The Storytelling clown traumatised by having watched the mutilation of Gloucester and having to kill a fellow servant. The sisters dealing with their feelings for Edmund in a song from Hercules and the 'Don't cry for me France and England' farewell from Regan (or was it Goneril?). There was a touching duet from spurned/dead husbands Albany and Cornwall 'Agony'. Cordelia getting existential in a cafe in France. The doddery Gloucester (pre-blinding) unable to read his son's letter because he can't find his glasses which are on his head. And a stunning couple of scenes by a loyal Postman who was exhausted to death because Lear and his negligent inheritors have let the country become so mixed up there are no working addresses anymore. I loved this offer also - a beautiful, political bit of clowning showing the banal, everyday, granular, human level fallout of the grand folly of the self-indulgent Lear.
And the eggs played their game to the end too - one of the sisters poisoned the other with a silver egg. Once you commit to a well chosen metaphor, it will support your meaning more than you expected.
And the eggs played their game to the end too - one of the sisters poisoned the other with a silver egg. Once you commit to a well chosen metaphor, it will support your meaning more than you expected.
A poison egg and a devastated Fool. Photo: Vlada Nebo
Lear the musical continued
I salute the commitment and comic genius of the three who played Edmund - seen here delivering their version of Billie Eilish's 'You should see me in a Crown'.
I salute the commitment and comic genius of the three who played Edmund - seen here delivering their version of Billie Eilish's 'You should see me in a Crown'.
I also want to acknowledge the wonderful contribution of the cohort member who choreographed a dance for the company to end the play.
And also also to the commitment and comedic integrity of the performer who voluntarily performed the dance in character as the blind Gloucester with his eyes shut throughout. He also made an interesting distinction on the difference between playing drama and clown. 'You are not finding the moment in the text (play) but rather finding the play in the moment.'
The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most; we that are young
Shall never see so much nor live so long.
And also also to the commitment and comedic integrity of the performer who voluntarily performed the dance in character as the blind Gloucester with his eyes shut throughout. He also made an interesting distinction on the difference between playing drama and clown. 'You are not finding the moment in the text (play) but rather finding the play in the moment.'
The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most; we that are young
Shall never see so much nor live so long.
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