King Lear at the Shakespeare Club

Kiwi

submitted by Joan Gaughan, Shakespeare Club

Due to the author’s lapse, there were three mistakes in the November 4 issue of the Mirror’s account of the Club’s activities. In Linda Breight’s presentation on New Zealand, although Australians no doubt love the little twerp, too, the kiwi was identified as Australia’s beloved bird, rather than New Zealand’s. The chairs commemorating the victims of the 2011 earthquake in the memorial park in Christchurch numbered 185 not 85. And finally, although there are a lot of sheep in New Zealand, the figure of three 10,000-acre sheep farms was also in error.

At the November 12 meeting, Mrs. Breight showed a diagram of the complicated, and fascinating traffic patterns (motored and pedestrian) at intersections in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.

Franci van der Schalie made us aware of a publicly-supported bird sanctuary in Saline that rescues and rehabilitates injured and orphaned birds. The sanctuary is located at 7600 Platt Road, Saline, MI 48176. The email is: clinic@birdcentermi.org. and the phone number is 734-761-9640.

James Earl Jones as King Lear

For the two meetings in November, the Club viewed Shakespeare’s King Lear featuring James Earl Jones as Lear and a cast of remarkably talented but little-known, actors. For readers interested in statistics, the final body count in the play stood at nine. Besides the poor, mad king, that included the two treacherous sisters who kill each other, one of their husband’s getting done in by a servant, the faithful daughter, Cordelia, and the Fool getting hanged, the legitimate son killing the evil bastard son, a sleazy steward getting killed, an earl whose eyes are gouged out, the usual storm, etc. etc. etc. all happening within the majesty of Shakespeare’s incomparable dialogue. 

The Duke of Kent (who dies of natural causes) also supplied us with insults that might be useful at Thanksgiving. Or anytime. An obnoxious guest (or relative) might be called “a knave, a rascal .a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, filthy, lily-livered whoreson…” That’s pretty feisty but someone could then come back at you with “coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch…” Ah, the splendor of a Shakespearean insult.

Hoping that such language will prove unnecessary, the Shakespeare Club wishes all of the Manchester community a hopeful and happy Thanksgiving.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.