The Melbourne Review

Power and Loss

June 2012

It’s a role that’s historically been played by acting legends such as Sir Ian McKellen, John Bell, Derek Jacobi and Paul Scofield, so when Australian director Rachel McDonald came up with the idea of a female version of King Lear, she knew it would be a risk.

It turned out to be well worth it, however, because casting Australia’s doyenne of theatre, Robyn Nevin, has seen Queen Lear already touted as a truly brilliant production. McDonald tells The Melbourne Review about the surprises encountered while tailoring the role for a female actor.

“It’s not so much of a twist on the original,” insists the director. “All of the big stuff that makes the play, it’s still there, so there aren’t really all that many changes overall. The one thing that I’ve noticed is that the sense of the gender of the central character is not really relevant. That was a big surprise. This play is not about boy or girl issues, it’s about life and death, so it doesn’t really matter if it’s played by a female or a male.”

In fact, it has been other aspects of the production that have proven to be more disruptive than having a female version of Lear. McDonald claims shrinking the size of the cast was especially one of them.

“We had to make some adaptations, such as shrinking the play a bit so that it’s playable by a smaller cast. An adaptation like that has been more disruptive than having a change of gender in the lead actor. It’s been very interesting to see how the issues in King Lear sometimes come across a bit differently when they’re coming from a female. It’s been an interesting way to refocus the play. All those issues, like power decline, parenting, madness… They’re assessed differently when it’s a woman in question. For example, when Lear goes crazy, there is so much misogynist, fixed sexual ranting there, but it’s interesting how when a woman says all those lines, it just sounds like self-loathing. Also, the moments where Lear is being particularly controlling towards the daughters – it sounds very different when it’s coming from a mother rather than a father.”

For those not so familiar with one of Shakespeare’s supreme works, McDonald puts it simply: “It’s basically like Cinderella”. Perhaps the most disturbing part about the play is the unexplained cruelty that human beings face without any explanation whatsoever.

“King Lear is a giant myth, really,” McDonald offers. “You’ve got the three daughters, just like in Cinderella, and there’s the good guy and the bad guy… It’s one of those classic cross-cultural myths told all over the world in various versions. It’s about power and the loss of power, it’s about its meaning, it’s about the fear that nothing makes sense in life. There is a lot of cruelty in Lear, but it’s never quite explained as to why. The characters are just trying to make sense of the random things that come from fate. It’s also about aging and the consequences of bad parenting and having family issues come back to bite you. It’s such a basic play but it’s such a complex play which works on a number of levels – such as political, domestic and mythical.”

While Nevin had originally been unable to take on the role when McDonald first put it on offer, several years later the planets aligned and the timing was perfect. Nevin recalls what attracted her to Queen Lear.

“I would never have thought about playing Lear but about eight years ago, Rachel approached me with her ambition to direct me as Queen Lear. I couldn’t do it then, and for one reason or another, other companies passed on it. That didn’t worry me; it became a long term ambition. Certain critics have deemed the role unactable, so thanks very much for that! Yes, it’s daunting. I have eight weeks before the beginning of the production and I will train physically and vocally and learn the role. That’s what you have to do.”

McDonald adds that, having worked so closely with Nevin recently, it’s become hard to imagine that it’s normally men who play this character.

“When I first approached Robyn, she wasn’t able to do it then. I know that she hadn’t really seen much of my work prior to that, so we had to get to a point where she was reassured. Once we spoke on the phone some years later, the project just took on a natural momentum; there was a huge sense of rightness about it. At this point, Robyn has inhabited this role so much now that it’s extraordinary. I literally have to keep reminding myself now that men play this role. It’s very strange.”

Queen Lear plays at the MTC Theatre, Sumner, from July 7 to August 18.

mtc.com.au

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