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2 UNDERSTANDING LEAR UNDERSTANDING LEAR By Joe Godfrey SYNOPSIS: A veteran actor prepares to deliver a lecture on the meaning of Shakespeare s King Lear, when he is interrupted by a cell phone going off more than once in the audience. Ordering the offending audience member on stage to explain his rude behavior, the actor in effect becomes Lear as the play progresses, and the young man with the cell phone becomes Lear s Fool. By the end, the older actor has discovered much about himself as well about as Lear. CAST OF CHARACTERS (2 males) ALISTAIR (m)...a distinguished, very grand actor. Late 40s or older. (90 lines) CURT (m)...attractive, hip, tech-savvy. Mid-20s. (90 lines) ALL LINE COUNTS ARE APPROXIMATE DURATION: 15 minutes TIME: The present SETTING: A bare stage with a lectern at center or side, facing audience. Perhaps a stack of books on a nearby table. Perhaps an easy or club chair as well. COSTUMES ALISTAIR is dressed as Lear might be in the Storm Scene: ragged, disheveled, unkempt wig, etc. or he might be dressed simply as a professor, perhaps with a tweed jacket. CURT is dressed casually, slacks or jeans, t- shirt or sweater.
JOE GODFREY 3 PROPS A smart phone for CURT, with the ability to ring at the intended times. A prop pistol. Ideally, a starter s pistol or similar prop pistol that would make a firing noise and would seem realistic. Alternately, a toy pistol could be used, with the actor saying, BANG! Or the actor might simply mimic a pistol with his hand and mime a shooting, etc. SOUND EFFECTS Thunder and storm sounds at the opening. AUTHOR S NOTE Before the play begins, CURT is planted in the audience, perhaps three rows back in the center. PRODUCTION HISTORY Understanding Lear had its world premiere at the Black Box Festival, Gallery Players, Brooklyn, NY in June 2016. It featured David Shakopi as Alistair and Jonas Barranca as Curt. The production was directed by Heather Arnson.
4 UNDERSTANDING LEAR AT RISE: A clap or two of thunder, then lights up on ALISTAIR near lectern, facing audience. ALISTAIR: (Speaking straight out to audience, acting grandly.) Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow, You cataracts and hurricanos, spout, Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulph rous and self-executing fires He stops, exhales, and goes toward lectern, perhaps resting an arm on the side at first. If he wears a wig, he might remove it. ALISTAIR: Lear. King Lear. Shakespeare s astounding creation. An eruption of human passions, human frailties. Lear. The actor s Everest. Hamlet, the Henrys, Richard III. I ve played them all. The Scottish play. But not yet Lear, the most challenging role of a thespian s career. A role I hope to add to my resume soon. But how does one prepare for this monumental assignment? Well, my friends, nothing can prepare you for playing Lear. Nothing. Except life itself. Experientia Docet. Experience does, indeed, teach. And for Lear, one must try very hard to look within, into the deep recesses of one s own soul A cell phone goes off noisily in the audience. It is in the pocket of CURT, who is planted in the crowd. CURT: (Muttering.) Uh-oh. CURT tries madly to turn it off and finally does. ALISTAIR tries to ignore the interruption but is clearly annoyed. CURT sighs. ALISTAIR: (Continuing.) into the deep recesses of your very own soul, and consider who this man is and who you yourself are. Why does life torment him so? What produced such a tumultuous rage in the last chapter of his life? What elements convened and conspired to push him to a precipice to what we would call these days a nervous breakdown? And in the final analysis, what did
JOE GODFREY 5 Shakespeare wish to say in this stupendous drama that ultimately baffles interpretation CURT S cell phone goes off again. Fumbling for it, CURT drops it to the floor, where it continues to beep. CURT: (On the floor now!) Oh, man! (Looking up and around at the audience.) Sorry, everyone (He finds phone and shuts it off.) ALISTAIR: (Walking away from the lectern toward downstage. Fuming and pointing at CURT.) Excuse me! You! CURT: Who, me? ALISTAIR: Yes, you! Do you have any idea where you are??? CURT: What? ALISTAIR: I said, do you have any idea where you are? CURT: (Nervously.) Of course, I do. ALISTAIR: I don t think you do. CURT: I said I was sorry. ALISTAIR: (Angrier.) Do you know where you are? CURT: (Flummoxed.) I m beginning to think I m in bed dreaming ALISTAIR: (Booming.) For the last time, where are you? CURT: In a theater, for God s sake! ALISTAIR: No, not for God s sake, but for my sake and everyone else in this theater, would you kindly explain your barbaric behavior? CURT: My cell phone went off. Big deal. Sorry. ALISTAIR: Well, I m sorry, but that will not do! CURT: (Starting to leave.) Geez, man I m outta here. ALISTAIR: Not yet, young man! CURT: (Continuing to get out of the aisle.) You are losing it, buddy (To audience.) I m sorry, everyone, I hope I didn t spoil things for you, but this guy is wacko! ALISTAIR: You are not leaving this theater! CURT: What is this? Some sort of absurdist play? ALISTAIR: Perhaps it is. CURT: (Stopping.) What do you mean? ALISTAIR: If you were really an audience member, would you believe this sort of thing was actually happening? CURT: I don t have any idea what you re talking about.
6 UNDERSTANDING LEAR ALISTAIR: And we ve already broken the fourth wall CURT: This isn t a dream. It s a nightmare. ALISTAIR: Come up on the stage. CURT: Okay. I ll play along. Why not? (CURT goes onto stage, then gestures to audience.) What about them? ALISTAIR: They ll stay. They need to hear this, too! CURT: This is insane. ALISTAIR: Now give me that thing. CURT: What? ALISTAIR: That phone. CURT: (He refuses to give up phone.) This is not just a phone. ALISTAIR: That Raspberry or whatever it s called. CURT: Blackberry? You are so out of it. It s a smart phone. ALISTAIR: It ll be a Dingleberry in a minute, when I shove it up your derriere! CURT: Geez! What is your problem? ALISTAIR: You cretins with your cell phones and beepers and pods! You are such pests! CURT: Hello, this is the twenty-first century, buddy. People want to be connected. ALISTAIR: Connected to what, I ask you? Certainly not civility. Certainly not good manners. CURT: Do you have children? ALISTAIR: I m afraid I do. Three daughters. CURT: I ll bet they use iphones? ALISTAIR: Of course they do. Two of them anyway. They re attached to them. Oh, they pretend that they re behaving like civilized young women, but they re not fooling me. Take them out for dinner, and they ll furtively pull out their devices and start punching away with their thumbs in a frenzy of hyperactivity. (He mimes texting. ) CURT: It s called texting. ALISTAIR: At a restaurant last week, they were texting away between courses, their thumbs darting around like jumping beans. They didn t think I saw them, But I did. And I put a stop to it. CURT: They might have been texting something important. ALISTAIR: They were texting each other! CURT: How old are they?
JOE GODFREY 7 ALISTAIR: Seventeen and nineteen. CURT: Well, that s what they do. ALISTAIR: My eldest has the good sense not to act like a vulgarian. CURT: Is she much older? ALISTAIR: No. She s twenty. She s just more considerate. She respects me. The other two, spinning away with their thumbs remind me of nothing so much as spiders wrapping up their prey. Black widows. CURT: Hey, they re your daughters, man. ALISTAIR: Sometimes I wonder. CURT: What? ALISTAIR: The eldest is so different, so deferential to my requests, so supportive. I sometimes wonder if someone else fathered the other two. CURT: You re kidding. ALISTAIR: Yes, I m kidding. But she is my favorite. CURT: How do the other girls feel about that? ALISTAIR: They don t care. They re only interested in themselves. I ve got half a mind to ask them to show me how they love me. CURT: Don t you love them? ALISTAIR: (After a pause.) They re my children, too. CURT: Have you ever told them that you love them? ALISTAIR: Of course I have. (After a pause.) I think it s wise to lie in those cases. CURT: That s awful! ALISTAIR: And what about them? Do you think they show me love and affection? Only when they want something. They don t care about me, my feelings, my rules, much less my afflictions. CURT: What afflictions? ALISTAIR: Where do I start? Arthritis. Gastritis. Irritable bowel. CURT: Forget the bowel. You re just plain irritable. ALISTAIR: You have no idea of the torments awaiting you CURT: Oh.., now I know where I ve seen you before. On television. ALISTAIR: Quite possibly. CURT: Yeah. A commercial. You had gas. ALISTAIR: One must at times accept employment to pay the rent the tuitions. CURT: Maybe it was constipation? You were squirming.
8 UNDERSTANDING LEAR ALISTAIR: You are childless, I presume? CURT: Yes. ALISTAIR: And how old are you? Twelve. Thirteen? CURT: Very funny. ALISTAIR: Do you know what raising three daughters, two of whom want nothing more than to avoid their father, can do to your bowels? CURT: No, and I don t want to know. ALISTAIR: What insults time hurls at you and your body as you age CURT: Hey, it s you hurling the insults, buddy. ALISTAIR: I am not your buddy, and if you think so, sir, you are a fool. CURT: (Quoting the Fool in King Lear, and reading it beautifully.) I had rather be any kind o thing than a fool: and yet I would not be thee, nuncle; thou hast pared thy wit o both sides, and left nothing i the middle. ALISTAIR: (Dumbfounded.) Where did that come from? CURT: I know Lear very well. ALISTAIR: Oh, really? CURT: If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I d have thee beaten for being old before thy time. ALISTAIR: How s that? CURT: Thou should st not have been old till thou hadst been wise. ALISTAIR: You know the Fool s lines? CURT: I m an actor. ALISTAIR: You re an actor? And you would defile this temple? This sacred place where the gods of comedy and tragedy reside till they are given birth by the likes of you and me? CURT: Whatever ALISTAIR: (Sighing.) And you know Lear? CURT: I played the Fool once. ALISTAIR: Typecasting. CURT: In high school. ALISTAIR: High school? What high school would have the audacity to even attempt a production of Shakespeare s greatest play? CURT: St. Mary s. Altoona.
JOE GODFREY 9 Thank you for reading this free excerpt from UNDERSTANDING LEAR by Joe Godfrey. For performance rights and/or a complete copy of the script, please contact us at: Heuer Publishing LLC P.O. Box 248 Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406 Toll Free: 1-800-950-7529 Fax (319) 368-8011 HEUERPUB.COM