The exuberance of youth and middle age is a currency we spend far too quickly. That’s why, when our twilight years engulf us, it’s better to be frugal with circumstance and affairs.
King Lear is a cautionary tale of how the sweeping gestures of old age can come back to bite you, particularly if those gestures are ruthless in nature.
As one of William Shakespeare’s more recognisable plays, King Lear tells of how Lear decides to share his kingdom between his three daughters, offering the largest share to the daughter who declares that she loves him the most.
When his youngest daughter Cordelia stands up to him and is disinherited as a result – as opposed to the two elder sisters, who lavish him with the praise he so desires – King Lear eventually loses everything and ends up wandering the moors, homeless, hungry and half-mad.
When The King of France marries Cordelia, their union becomes one of love and strategy: it adds salt to the wound and causes a further rift, indirectly plunging Britain and France into war.
‘Because of her speech and plea to King Lear and also her condemnation of what the other daughters have done, I think The King of France marries her out of respect and out of love,’ explained Keith Agius, who plays The King of France in the upcoming Bell Shakespeare’s production of King Lear.
‘But of course there is a strategic choice there as well by taking King Lear’s daughter and taking her to France, causing a conflict. But I think the overriding thing is that The King of France is totally flawed by her actions. He really respects her choices by not telling him exactly what King Lear wants to hear.’
What ensues has the usual Shakespearian scope for the epic. For Agius, it’s the chance to work with one of the industry’s greats: John Bell, the man responsible for Bell Shakespeare- the company itself celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
But adding to the auspiciousness of working with John Bell’s prestigious company is the fact that Agius is his understudy, which means that when the 70 year old grand duke of Shakespeare does six performances in a week, Agius fills in for any and all shows thereafter, including school matinees.
It’s an honour in itself, Agius pointed out, to be working for someone like Bell, let alone working so closely with him.
‘He’s taught me that as far as working with the complexity of the text of King Lear that you actually have to trust the language more,’ Agius said of Bell’s mentoring.
‘There’s a lot of actors who work too hard and especially with Shakespeare’s text, which does a lot of the work for you. So I think taking the pedal off and actually trusting the language and letting the play take you is a big one for me and finding economy and especially map the journey throughout the play, because it is such a huge journey.
‘There are so many peaks and troughs and how you manage that as an actor and get through it and not be totally exhausted by the end of it, that’s probably the biggest lesson I’ve learnt: how to get through it and not blow a gasket too early.’
While Agius pointed out that Shakespeare writes your subtext for you so you don’t have to emote overtly, he commented that the modern age does offer some unique insights into King Lear.
‘I do believe – just from my take on him – that he actually does suffer from a mental illness and that the course of events in his life at that age and his choices fling him into a manic depressive episode and he therefore throughout the play goes through that cycle of manic behaviour and depression and comes out the other end.
‘There are moments where you totally hate King Lear and other moments where you empathise with him. The same goes for every other character: there’s humanity in all of them but they all make mistakes. And they all pay for them as well.’
King Lear appears at His Majesty’s Theatre from Friday June 18 until Saturday June 26 for 10 performances only. Tickets are available now. www.bocsticketing.com.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
