Shakespeare’s King Lear gives a good (accurate and artistic) accounting of what happens when a powerful leader descends into madness. Lear is impressed by the flattery he receives from two of his daughters, and leaves his kingdom to them, ignoring the third daughter, who is more circumspect and honest in what she says. The play is a tragedy because it does not end well for any of the main characters. Although the play is “fiction” in that Lear was not a “real” king, the characters are based on common historical events. History shows how common it has been for those . . . → Read More: King Lear in Charge
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 Comments are closed  Blog  Agincourt, battle, Battle of Hastings, civil wars, commoners, corporations, crew, Earl Landgrebe, ethnicity, golden parachute, gossip, history, King Lear, living in interesting times, madness, Magna Carta, media, news, newspapers, Nixon, Paul Simon, race, radio, reporting, royalty, self-interest, Shakespeare, Slip Slidin' Away, town crier, troops, Trump, TV, Watergate, we the people A long time ago (1959) in a land far, far away (France) a playwright named Eugène Ionesco wrote The Rhinoceros. In the play, the citizens of a provincial French village turn into rhinoceroses. The most common interpretation of the play is the Nazi takeover of France in the 1930s. The Rhinocerisation of the citizenry in the play symbolizes that takeover. When I was watching TV news last night, I had the weird sense that the United States is currently undergoing its own process of rhinocerisalion. While we watch our friends and neighbors become rhinos, we exclaim the equivalent of the . . . → Read More: The Rhinoceros Comments are closed Blog Al Wilson, bazarre, china shop, Eugene Ionesco, France, French village, king of hearts, madness, military rank, play, rhinos, snake, snakes, The Rhinoceros |
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