Tags: Concerts and Performances, Performing Arts, Theater
By Anna Valmero
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA – For the first time, one of William Shakespeare’s greatest masterpieces will be staged in Filipino language.
Set in a post-nuclear world that is strangely contemporary and familiar, Shakespeare’s King Lear receives a fitting, royal makeover, fashioned by a pool of Filipino theater giants, according to Leloi Arceta, public relations supervisor at Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA).
National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera translated the text into prose while retaining the rhythm, texture and elegant brutality of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
The classic is turned into modern-day contemporary family drama by acclaimed theater director, Nonon Padilla while World Stage Design awardee Gino Gonzales established the dark aesthetic styles of the play.
“Exciting, suspenseful and virtually violent” is how Arcete reffered to PETA’s “Haring Lear”. The masterpiece focuses on the “beautiful and devastating themes of the disintegration of family solidarity, running the gamut of love, madness, death and sacrifice.”
In brief, the story focuses about King Lear who divides his kingdom among his two older daughters, and disowning her youngest and favorite daughter, who was unable to put into words his love for his father. The two older daughters, with the help of other characters, trick the King and conspires to use the situation of the impending French invasion to push forth with their real intentions, which ends in a tragedy.
The play follows the success of the musical “William” that used rap to deliver the evocative lines from Shakespeare’s plays and how it is relevant until today—by encouraging students to read more and understand lessons at school.
‘Haring Lear’ features a traditional Shakespeare all-male cast helmed by theater stalwart Teroy Guzman who plays the title role of the aging monarch, Haring Lear. Theater actors Gary Lim, Nor Domingo and Abner Delina will perform the roles of the king’s three daughters, namely Regan, Goneril and Cordelia.
The rest of the case are Jay Gonzaga (Edmundo), Myke Salomon (Edgardo), Jack Yabut (Gloster), Josel Reyes (Earl of Kent), George De Jesus (Oswaldo), Jeff Hernandez (Duke of Cornualles), Renante Bustamante (Duke of Albanya), Fredyl Hernandez (Duke of Burgundy), Angel Moratilla (King of France) and Ernie Cloma (Old Man).
‘Haring Lear’ runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from January 27 to March 4, 2012 at The PETA Theater Center. For tickets, contact PETA at (02) 7256244, 4100821-22, 0917-5765400 or email petatheater@gmail.com.
(Photo by PETA)
Get more information on the Philippine Educational Theater Association
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