King Lear
From April to June 2012, Shakespeare’s Globe brought theatre companies from around the world to perform all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays in 37 languages. The Globe to Globe season was part of the World Shakespeare Festival for the London 2012 Festival.
King Lear is no longer available but you can still see some of the Globe to Globe plays featured on The Space.
KING LEAR
Performed in Belarussian by the Belarus Free Theatre
(with subtitles in English)
THE COMPANY
The Belarus Free Theatre was founded in 2005 and has no facilities or official registration in Belarus, described as Europe’s last dictatorship. The company performs in private apartments and open spaces with the perpetual threat of arrest and persecution. The theatre, which has gained high-profile international support, has vowed to disband when democracy is established in Belarus.
THE PLAY
Lear, King of Britain, insists his three daughters compete to express their love for him and win parts of the realm. Cordelia, the youngest and truest, refuses and is disinherited and banished to France, leaving everything to Lear’s selfish older daughters. Ungrateful and unheeding, they turn their ageing father from the family home. As Britain prepares for war with France, families are torn apart and loyalties strained by the power-hungry sisters and their scheming new ally, Edmund, illegitimate son of Gloucester.
PRINCIPAL CAST AND CREDITS
Lear: Aleh Sidorchik
Goneril: Yana Rusakevich
Regan: Maryna Yurevich
Cordelia: Victoryia Biran
Edmund, King of France: Aliaksei Naranovich
Director: Vladimir Shcherban
Adaptor: Nicolai Khalezin
Executive producers: Natalia Kaliada, Nicolai Khalezin