‘King Lear’ has it all. And its protagonist goes through everything that a human being is capable of feeling, thinking and suffering while developing the Shakespearean piece to which he gives his name and that today and tomorrow, starting at 7:30 p.m., is revived at the Cuyás de la theater. Gran Canaria capital from the hand of the Atalaya company.
Ricardo Iniesta, head of Atalaya, a company that was awarded the National Theater Prize in 2008, speaks like a torrent of this mature piece of the Bardo de Avon while at the same time not ceasing to value its qualities. «If Shakespeare is the Himalayas, ‘King Lear’ is Everest without the tourists who leave everything full of garbage. It is the great work of Western universal theater, because of what it implies of adventure, epic and depth “, Iniesta explains bluntly in the presentation at the Viera y Clavijo street.
He acknowledges, yes, that the recognitions towards ‘King Lear’ were made to be requested. «It was cut off for a long time because it was a song against the powerful. In the twentieth century it began to be done as the original marked. It is way above ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Hamlet’. The first portrays politics and the second existentialism. ‘King Lear’ portrays both and a clear empathy with the underprivileged. Hopefully we will ever hear, which I doubt, a king who on Christmas Eve tells us things like the ones this character says “, launches the director of this show after reciting this Shakespearean passage:” Powerful, get rid of the luxuries and begin to feel like the miserable! ».
For the director of Atalaya, the virtues of the play are shared by both the protagonist and the remaining eight roles. «Beyond the greatness of the ideological discourse is the greatness of all the characters. They are nine and each one is very well drawn. They have ‘travel’, as we usually say in the theater. Each one of them can star in a solo play », Iniesta emphasizes, highlighting the jester. «For years it was censored. He is a philosopher, who portrays the poetic beauty and political depth of the work. It is the transcript of the king.
This is the second time that ‘Rey Lear’ has made a stop at Cuyás, after a version starring José María Pou and directed by Calixto Bieito. Now the actress Marga Reyes – replacing Carmen Gallardo, who is out due to vocal problems – gives life to this Shaskespearean tyrant.
Actresses like Nuria Espert and Glenda Jackson, among others, have already tackled this legendary character about whom Ricardo Iniesta says that Pou himself has recognized that he has “such extreme fragility that it is difficult for a man to do so.”
The director of Atalaya warns that the viewer will see a king. “It is not a female performance, it is not a Queen Lear,” he says of “the greatest character ever written.” “None have their journey, since they star in a journey through all the characters of the human being,” he clarifies.
A choir with airs from the North Sea, Belarus and Poland
With a different music and profile, but just as happened with the ‘Marat Sade’ with which Atalaya arrived at the Cuyás theater a few seasons ago, in this ‘King Lear’ music takes on a lot of weight.
“The actors do a very important choir job. With ‘Marat Sade’, the music had a Central European and even Italian touch. ‘King Lear’ sounds like the North Seas, the cliffs of England and the Nordic countries, with the presence of popular choirs from Belarus and Poland “, explains Ricardo Iniesta, director of the show.
He assures that at the stage level the bet is “minimalist”. «The actors are neither dressed as medieval nor in jeans. We make it universal and as if it were happening anywhere in the world, “he adds.
On stage the public will enjoy nine actors from four generations of a company that in 2023 will celebrate 40 years of experience.
–
– .
