King Lear

King Lear, one of William Shakespeare's most important and well-known tragedies, is on stage at the Teatro Argentina directed by and with Gabriele Lavia.

The five-act tragedy, partly in verse and partly in prose, written between 1605 and 1606, is inspired by ancient British mythology and is the only great Shakespearean tragedy to present a structure usually reserved for comedies, that is, a main plot, which is intertwined with a secondary one, i.e. the subplot, which influences deeply the main one.

The story is set in Britain where, in an unspecified time, the old King Lear is about to abdicate: around him, without him realizing it, there is a clash between the pretenders to the throne. Having obtained power through false declarations of great filial love, the two eldest daughters Goneril and Regan betray him, while the third, Cordelia, who had not found the words to express her love for her father, is unjustly expelled from the kingdom by this; despite this, remaining faithful to him, she decides to take sides in defense of her old father when it is too late and in the kingdom there are disorders generated by the two eldest daughters who are fighting over power. Driven out, reduced to madness, the king wanders on the stormy moor, a metaphor for the chaos that spreads in the kingdom, now aware that in trying to maintain the survival of his lineage through abdication, Lear has actually caused a fratricidal war that will hasten the its end.

A drama that places filial love and betrayal at the centre, Shakespearean tragedy stages a world in which universal values ​​are subverted and trampled upon. King Lear's storm in fact, is at the same time the storm of his mind and of the mind of all humanity, which are both inexorably overwhelmed. 

With Gabriele Lavia, Giovanni Arezzo, Giuseppe Benvegna, Eleonora Bernazza, Jacopo Carta, Beatrice Ceccherini, Federica Di Martino, Ian Gualdani, Mauro Mandolini, Andrea Nicolini, Gianluca Scaccia, Silvia Siravo, Sebastiano Tringali, Jacopo Venturiero, Lorenzo Volpe.

Photo credits: Tommaso Le Pera