King Lear

What would happen today if an old white man abdicated and left the country to be ruled by his three daughters? Would power structures change? Would established hierarchies and privileges survive? Would conflicts between the sexes, generations, between rich and poor be resolved? Or would new arenas of competition open up and new animosities arise that would merely replace existing ones without fundamental change?

Thomas Melle’s adaptation remains faithful to Shakespeare’s plot while relocating important areas of emphasis and catapulting King Lear into our present day and age. The inhabitants of this world quarrel about definitions of “correct” while many believe that its centuries-old traditions must die. Yet the old and the new will have to come to terms if they are to meet on an equal footing.