Here's a teaser for our King Lear: Jersey Shore performance, which was pushed back to March 7 in Room 138 at 10:30, which of course means a lot of y'all will have to reschedule your plane/train/steamer tickets and for that I apologize, but the demands of art are never gentle:

These problems won't disappear w/ your hangover

(and yes, this is *my big scene* so naturally I gravitate towards it)

Scene 13 – Francie’s Place, Near Dover

[Lear, Delia, Kenny]
[Stage Direction: Lear is sleeping; Kent is standing guard over Lear; Delia walks in]

Delia: Oh, my dear old Dad. I know my skank ass sisters haven’t treated you right. Let your little girl give you a kiss and make it better.
[Delia kisses Lear on forehead]

Kenny: That’s why you’re his little princess. I told him so.

Delia: Oh, Daddy, if only you’d listened to me. Had you not been their father, those buttahface b#@hes could never get in the club. Look at you now, once the most VI of the Ps. Now wretched and drunk, coked out and pissed yourself. You reek of cheap booze and cheaper hos. Even though you cast me out, I should have had your back. It’s a wonder you aren’t dead on the street somewhere.He wakes, speak to him Kenny.

Kenny: It’s best if you do.
[Lear wakes]

Lear: Ugh! I must be dead, after all that absinthe. What a miserable corner I’ve drank myself into this time.

Delia: Daddy, it’s me. Wake up.

Lear: [Groans] Cocaine is hell of a drug. I can barely see straight. Where the f#@k am I?How did I get here? Could it be? Delia, my princess?

Delia: Yes, Daddy, it’s me.



I have to admit ... it kind of works more than I would have been willing to give credit to the concept. I mean, not exactly your Ethan Hawke's modern Hamlet, your Romeo + Juliet (never watch that if you've just been in a production of the play... you may cause a scene in the movie theatre) or your Steampunk Macbeth (thank god - I still maintain that they crafted the concept after deciding that instead of making costumes, they'd just raid the storage trunk and throw together the random detritus the theater had accumulated over the years.)

Either the cast or the beginnings
of a torrid game of D&D

But, well, actually considering those productions went on to sell tickets and develop a decent fan base, I'm not sure that our creation shouldn't be considered VALID ART, MAN!!! To be fair, I really liked Ethan Hawke's Hamlet. I thought it was powerful, well acted, beautifully shot, and didn't get bogged down in its own updating cleverness or allow the anachronism to detract from the story. So I'm not actually averse to the whole updating thing, per se, but I think people get too caught up in the mild stylistic choice and loss track of the meat of the play. And surprisingly the themes that predominate in Lear actually kind of do work in the scary world of Jersey Shore - there's a certain human baseness that surfaces in both from which transcendent moments emerge glittering on the horizons.

I remain a little concerned that we've kept the stage direction in which Lear has to carry in Delia's lifeless body onstage at the end. I am not exactly elfin... yes, I consider myself on the leaner side of the carnivore's spectrum, but I'm also tall and while my bmi may rival that of your average pixie (though happily not the average model and/or cancer patient), my 5'10 1/2, 140ish lb frame is not exactly hugely wieldy if I'm dead and thus unable to support some of my own weight. Our Lear isn't exactly hulking, so we'll see what hijinks ensue. And will we be signing waivers/assumption of risk/arbitration agreements for ensuing liability for the inevitable accidents when we start play-fighting?? It is a law school.