"King Lear" Workshop and Stratford Trip - Tuesday, July 6

Workshop on King Lear at University of Warwick with Jonathan Heron

1. Jonathan projected an image from the RSC archives of Kathryn Hunter as "King Lear" without revealing who she was or the role she was playing (the photo was a full face shot of her wearing a sort-of crown of thorns and a red nose (perhaps a flower?). The group worked in pairs to discuss what they saw in the image. Jonathan took some observations from each group and then asked which character they thought appeared in the image. Many thought it was the fool and he revealed her to be playing Lear.

2. The whole group was given about a minute in which to mingle around the room and find out something they did not already know about the play. After half the time had passes, he asked them to switch who they were talking to in order to hear a variety of potentially new information. Again, the group shared what they had learned.

3. Jonathan projected another image from the RSC archives - this one of Andy Serkis in the role of the Fool from 1993. This time, the pairs were asked to determine which character he might be portraying. Most guessed the Fool, though some thought it could also be Edgar moonlighting as Poor Tom. He then asked the pairs to talk about relationships in Lear which were then shared aloud.

4. Jonathan distributed two lines of dialogue to each pair and gave them five minutes in order to create a tableau that illustrated the relationship between the characters at that moment in the play. All pairs were given dialogue between Lear and the Fool. After the prep time, everyone showed their image at the same time and then one at a time so the rest of the group could comment on what they saw. Based on the responses of the "audience," Jonathan asked how the themes that emerged from the images otherwise appeared in the play.

5. Jonathan projected several more images of Lear and the Fool from various productions in the RSC archive and compared them to the images the students had created.

6. In the final activity, the group was divided into four and each tried to categorize different groupings of characters (those who are looking for power; those who are looking for companionship; etc.) and then shared their ideas with the larger group.

Here are some photographs of the group presenting their tableaux of Lear and the Fool (apologies to the first group, which I missed):

Walking tour of Stratford

When we arrived in Stratford, Jonathan Heron led the group on a brief walking tour of the Shakespeare sites in order to orient the students so they could take the afternoon to see whatever interested them along the way. He based the tour on the Seven Stages of Man from As You Like It.

At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

We saw stepped off at the Birthplace:















And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.

Then we pressed on to the site of the Stratford Grammar School:

And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.

Here, we were to go to the gardens at New Place but they were closed for a special event:

Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.

As Shakespeare was never a soldier, Jonathan took this bit to be the man at work, so we approached The Swan and RSC Theatre (under construction):

And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.

In this section, with references to a round belly lined with capon, Jonathan pointed our dinner venue, The Dirty Duck:

The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.

As this refers to the aging man, we pressed on to the Courtyard Theatre, where we would be later seeing a performance of “King Lear”:

Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

And at the last bit, we approached the churchyard at Holy Trinity, where Shakespeare is buried: