SHAKESPEARE ENSEMBLE STAGES KING LEAR

---Warren Johnston, Valley News,  June 21, 2007
Starting tonight, the NorthEast Shakespeare Ensemble presents the "brutal tragedy of King Lear...The Ensemble's production will showcase Upper Valley theater artists as well as actors with New York experience." (More)

SHAKESPEARE MASTERPIECE HEADED FOR STAGE

---NHWeekend, New Hampshire Union Leader, June 21, 2007
"The NortEast Shakespeare Ensemble opens its 2007 season with Shakespeare's King Lear featuring the ensemble's artistic director, John Goodlin, in the title role."
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ANOTHER VIEW OF KING LEAR

---Roger Masters, Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government Emeritus, Dartmouth College; Commentary: Valley News, June 28, 2007
"Alex Hanson's June 23 review of the NorthEast Shakespeare Ensemble's production of King Lear shows the dangers of judging a performance of Shakespeare without either listening carefully to the lines or reading the play." (More)

NESE'S LEAR WAS TRULY PROFESSIONAL

---Carola E. Grouse, Sunapee, NH, Letters: Argus-Champion, June 27, 2007 In addition to its acclaimed theatre productions, NESE puts strong emphasis on educational outreach. (More)

SHAKESPEARE ENSEMBLE STAGES KING LEAR


The company's artistic director, John Goodlin, is cast in the title role. In recent history, Goodlin has directed the Ensemble productions of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream. His Shakespearean roles include Prospero in The Tempest, Pandulph in King John, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. Michael G. Dell'Orto of Wilton Center, NH, directs. His credits include shows at Worcester Foothills Theatre, the American Stage Festival and the New Playhouse in Hampton, NH. The play also features Donna Sorbello as Goneril. She has appeared in New England in productions of the Glass Menagerie, Betrayal and Steel Magnolias, and in New York as Mad Agnes in The Drunkard and Pat Nixon in Fight Song. Dee Nelson, who plays Regan, also has extensive experience and won Boston's Elliot Norton Award for her role as Elvira in Blithe Spirit and Hester in The Scarlet Letter. Nurit Monacelli plays Cordelia and has appeared in New York in the title role of Miss Julie and most recently in Harold Pinter's One for the Road.
---Warren Johnson, Valley News,  June 21, 2007
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SHAKESPEARE MASTERPIECE HEADED FOR STAGE


Assembling for the first time a couple of weeks ago, NESE's King Lear Company boasts a large cast that required Goodlin, along with guest director Michael G. Dell'Orto, to hold multiple auditions - Equity and non Equity - local, regional and in New York City - to find the strongest acting talent possible. The result, according to event organizers, "is a top-quality acting company that includes veteran actors, bright young professionals and the best acting talent to be found in the region." Audiences will see many of their favorite actors from last season's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream returning to take on roles in this production, including James Sears as Edmund, Jeff Berry as Kent, Mark Irish as Edgar and Nurit Monticelli as Cordelia. Other familiar faces from last season include Bernard Bygott as Cornwall, Bill Chappelle as Albany, Kurt Feuer as France, Neale Harper as Burgundy and Scott Sweatt in the role of Oswald. Newcomers in key roles include Donna Sorbello and Dee Nelson as Lear's older daughters Goneril and Regan, Dale Place as Gloucester and Andrew Clateman as Lear's Fool. Opening night tonight will be a benefit performance for the Children's Literacy Foundation (CLiF).
---NHWeekend, New Hampshire Union Leader, June 21, 2007
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ANOTHER VIEW OF 'KING LEAR'


Alex Hanson's June 23 review of the NorthEast Shakespeare Ensemble's production of King Lear [in the Valley News] shows the dangers of judging a performance of Shakespeare without either listening carefully to the lines or reading the play. At the outset, Kent tells Lear of "thy foul disease," and in the next scene, Regan speaks of "the infirmity of his age." Shakespeare didn't have the modern word for it, but Lear seems to have the first stage of Alzheimer's Disease (called "Minimal Cognitive Impairment"). When we first see him with Goneril, he asks, "Are you our daughter?" Then, after she speaks of "These dispositions, that of late transform you from what you rightly are," Lear himself asks: "Doth any here know me? This is not Lear: Doth Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, his discernings are lethargied - Ha! waking? 'tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am?"

  • At the very end of the play, Lear manages to remember Kent - but with some confusion, in the following dialogue:
  • Lear: "This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?"
  • Kent: "The same. Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?
  • Lear: "He's a good fellow. I can tell you that; He'll strike, and quickly too: he's dead and rotten."
  • Kent: "No my good lord: I am the very man."
  • Lear: "I'll see that straight."
  • Kent: "That, from your first of difference and decay,
  • Have follow'd your sad steps."
  • As this last line suggests, Lear's decline "follow'd" from deficits in memory that, in our own day, are all too familiar in the first phase of Alzheimer's Disease.

    • Moments later, after lamenting the death of his Fool, Lear dies from his disease, not from anyone's action. Having watched a loved one die of this disease, I believe this explanation of the end of the play - like the rest of the action - shows that it is Hanson rather than the actors who "obscured dialogue central to understanding Lear."...Ignoring Lear's failing mind - and his ultimate descent to madness - thus leads Hanson to an insulting judgment of a strong performance [Goodlin's].

    Hanson asserts that, "Ultimately, King Lear is about how misunderstanding the nature of power, truth, freedom and lies can damage the body politic...There's no simple analogy between Lear and the foolishness of the current American administration, but I was surprised to hear the echoes." Instead of thinking Shakespeare's play allows us to understand the harmful effects of the Bush presidency, it's a good idea to pay attention to what the bard actually said. Neither the president nor our vice president has Alzheimer's disease. While I can imagine which of them resembles Edmund, the existence of an evil, power-hungry schemer is a subject of many plays and novels, and hardly the core of King Lear's betrayal by his daughters.
    ---Roger Masters, Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government Emeritus, Dartmouth College; Commentary: Valley News, June 28, 2007
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    NESE'S LEAR WAS TRULY PROFESSIONAL


    John Goodlin's Lear is a proud king who sinks into anguished desperation, and the rest of a fine professional cast shows us that the play is as relevant today as it was when it was written. "Gloucester's line: 'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind' is a warning for our age."
    ---Carola E. Grouse, Sunapee, NH, Letters: Argus-Champion, June 27, 2007
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    King Lear Dale Place* (Gloucester), Mark Irish* (Edgar).
    *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
    Photo: © William G. Cleland
    NorthEast Shakespeare Ensemble • PO Box 1559 • New London, NH 03257 • Tel. 603-526-8251 • email:Info@NESEtheatre.org