"Oh Lear, Lear, Lear, beat at this gate that let thy folly in and my dear judgement out!" ...Hmmm how to start.. I saw Lear in Belarusian a few days ago. I was excited to see this not not only because it is Lear, but because there was a lot of hype about the Belarusians who apparently aren’t allowed to perform in their own country. Talks of Belaruse apparently being the last of the European dictatorships... hmmm... WELL. I would have to say I was gravely dissappointed in the production. Firstly they didn’t seem very well rehearsed (I imagine condition in their country make this challenging). The actors had a huge technical problem, being no one could hear a word they said unless you stood at the front of the theatre. I was at the front for the first half but then moved to the back of the pit for the second half to get a different perspective. I couldn’t hear a word. Now even though it’s not in English, the language gives you a huge sense of the story, so a lot was lost because of this. They did not own the space. Secondly I fel that their production was a bit lame... their ideas about how to tell the story diminished the story itself. The Fool wasn’t funny, there were no stakes, and Lear didn’t have enough of a transformation for me to care.
Ah well, it was interesting to see a production which I knew so well. Sometimes I could tell which lines they were saying, even though they weren’t in English. Coriolanus in Japanese tonight!!
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