King Lear
Big Flat Bugs
pulsing
Big
Signs (speech balloons):
Hello electronic (mantis)
Hello wooden (beetle)
Play a game with me electronic
What game? wooden
The game of Kings elect
OK wood
Cordelia, do your best elect
Edmund, do your worst wood
[both] Let the play begin
Dividing the Kingdom
Chuck: Hello, hello, I’m Chuck Meese, and
I’m here to talk with you about entomology, the study of insects. Did you know that there are many more kinds of
insects on earth than any other kind of living creature? 95% of all the animal species on the earth are
insects! Millions of insects can exist in a single acre of land! Like for instance on an acre of
I’m here to talk to you about one insect in particular – King Lear; here he comes now.
Lear long entrance
Lear Asst: Tremble, miserable mammal, before the great King Lear!
Chuck: How do you do; I am a passing entomologist, engaged upon a study of territoriality in the Coleoptera, and I am most interested in the genera, species, and phylogenetic relationships of yourself and this clade
Lear Asst: Lear is Here!
[shouts] We demand food, drink, and shelter!
Umbrella, lounge chair, etc.
FAST run in
Theresa: Ooo, Lear is here….. trouble in the family, I can see it coming…..
Chuck: And who are you?
Theresa: Ooo, me, I’m just a friend of the family, some of them; some of them are the sweetest most darling Polyphaga ever to wear spots, and some are just the most blood-sucking army ants ever known to man, I’m telling you!
Lear space set up
Lear Asst: That’s better….adequate
lear’s drummer accompanies?
I have the honor to represent his most splendid resplendency, King Lear, at the
pinnacle of power, and the apex of
augustness, magnate of the insect kingdom
hereabout, ruler of the vacant lots of
His Majesty has directed me to issue the following statement:
Lear Asst: Know that we have divided Lear lip-synchs
in three our kingdom, and tis our fast intent
to shake all cares and business from our age,
conferring them on younger strengths, while we
unburdened crawl toward death. … Tell me, my daughters –
which of you shall we say doth love us most.
Goneril, our eldest born, speak first.
Goneril in long walk in, main dance
Chuck: My goodness, what is that?
Theresa: Now, dear,
let me explain this…. you’re going to get a chance to study some
territoriality! He’s finally doing it!
He’s going to
Chuck: An army ant, evidently…
[when Gonerils
gets there] music pause
Goneril Asst:
My client has issued the following statement:
Goneril lip-synchs
I shall implement all pragmatic and appropriate action to assess each level of threat, and ever maintain a critical dynamic towards substantiative progress in maintaining a firm security zone around you, dear father.
Regard me as a creditable source.
Lear Asst: Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
With shadowy forests and with champlains riched,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady. …
music resume
Theresa: That would
be
GONERIL STAYS
Regan in long walk in, main dance
Theresa: That’s Regan. She’s in charge of the markets. She makes sure that stocks stay up and taxes stay down, that stock options stay open. Watch your wallet around her…..
Chuck: That’s a mosquito, all right.
[when Regan gets there] music pause
Lear Asst: What says our second daughter?
Regan Asst: My client declares:
I will ever maintain revenue synergy and critical dynamic in the private sector; excess capacity utilization will maintain your market share and revenue until we achieve positive cash flow.
Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie, I want it, I want it, I want it!
Lear: To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom,
Theresa: That would
be
music resume
REGAN STAYS
GONERIL
AND REGAN HUDDLE WITH ASSTS
And now for my honey! Cordelia, baby!
Cordelia in
Theresa: Come along, darling….Oh shake a leg, you ladybug, do, quit that lollygagging and loitering you noodlehead………Now, you have to understand my sweety… she’s darling, but she’s different……. Get a grip! I’m not going back to Dubeque, so speak up on the dime, girl! We want a kingdom too!
Lear Asst: ….Now, our joy,……
What can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
music big build, sudden silence
Cordelia: “……..” long pause
Teresa: No, no, wait, she can talk, come on, my……[ ] open that mouth and eloqute!
Lear: Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
music big build, sudden silence
Cordelia:
……….. long long pause
Theresa: Don’t you do this to me!
Lear Asst: Let it be so. Thy truth, then, be thy dower.
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity, and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee from this forever.
Lear into audience
Theresa: That Mugwump! Well she’s just a poor bitty [aggravating, cantankerous] ladybug, what’s she supposed to say? Banishing my sweet spotty honey! Where’s she supposed to go, I want to know?
But wait, hey, sweetie, you got wings, you can fly, now spread those wings, now!
We’re flying over the
Cordelia out
Edmund and Sisters
terrible noise
Edmund
in
Dony following closely
fight music, creepy, continues
Chuck: What on earth is that?
Dony: This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbit. He begins at curfew and walks till the first cock.
Chuck: Who are you?
Dony: Mad Tom
Chuck: You are not!
Dony: Am too!
Chuck: I know that voice, you’re Professor Higginbothem.
Dony: Am not!
Chuck: I heard you read your seminal work on predacious camouflage in insects at the Icelandic conference……
Dony: Sshh! Don’t blow my cover!
Dony: I am in disguised as an irrational insect in order to safely study this hitherto unknown twisted-wing parasite, Edmund. It will undoubtedly proceed to entice these females and steal their territory, for such is its method of operation.
Chuck: So you’re also researching the interactions among the insects in this area?
Dony: All my research is fully protected by copyright!
Edmund dances with Goneril and Regan
ending up in a turning huddle
King Lear and entourage sets up
fanfare stops music
huddle turns to Lear
pulsing
Lear Asst: Ahem! We have come to visit our daughters! [to Chuck] Sir, does it strike you that they are acting oddly?
Chuck: Let us investigate this phenomenon.
Dony: Are you sure it’s safe?
sisters chanting
Goneril Asst: terrorist capabilities!
Regan Asst: speculative fervor!
Goneril Asst: flagrant violation!
Regan Asst: impermissible retrogression!
advance on Lear, repeating chant
Lear Asst: How sharper than the serpents tooth
It is to have a thankless child – Away, away!
pulsing?
Lear into audience
sisters and Edmund out crazily
Lear and the storm
Dony: The weather report!
Chuck: The weather report?
Dony: I don’t like the look of it!
Chuck: The barometer is falling!
Dony: This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbit! Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Poor Tom’s a-cold!
Chuck: It’s going to be a heck of a storm.
Birds
in
Bird
Dance
swoop down on Lear encampment
Lear left with only I Asst.
Cordelia is found by the Press
newsroom sound and whistle
fly Interview
Theresa speaks for Cordelia
ending with: And how do you feel about the disaster which has overtaken your father, King Lear?
YES, Cordelia will rescue her father, King Lear
rescue music
CORDELIA
STAYS,
Dony: And now, observe, all the insects involved will now consider the territory theirs, attempting to expel all the others.
Chuck: Most interesting and informative.
ant/mosquito music
Regan and Goneril in
Dony: My research paper on this interaction will be the sensation of the endoparasite conference!
Chuck: Oh, really!
Goneril and Regan circle each other
Cordelia rescues Lear
MOVES
TO SCREAMS ?
Lear onto stage, sisters attack
Lear Asst: Help, help!
Cordelia to him
Assts attack Cordelia
Opera singer steps out of Cordelia, sings aria
Leads Lear out
silence
Jan, 3 knocks, point to back
big bug noise
Gold bug in, scroll to Chuck
music in gradually
Chuck: Goneril, and Regan: for your misdeeds, which have brought sorrow to so many, The Emperor of the Insects sentences you to work a nine-to-five job, to take the subway, to wash your own dishes and sweep your own floors, and to pay all your taxes and parking tickets, from now on, henceforth, forever! And furthermore, there shall be not more kings!
slightly down for poem
Step from your chrysalis, and, preening, stay
To let your wings dry in the summer air
Soon the city’s breath will take you where
You can look down to find your way
Dance in the updrafts, scrabble, fight, play
Trust nature’s hand to send the wind to bear
You up, and find you gleaming gold to wear.
You shine! You
glitter in the burning day.
The air is filled with lives as small as mites
And large as worlds. They live as high
As the tallest tower. They long for lights
and pleasures too. Their short lives exemplify
The need to reach for unimaginable
heights.
So stand, lift golden wings, and fly.