Today, we moved forward with Act 1, Scene 3, which is a very short scene.

After reading it through, the ensemble discusses what is happening in the scene. They seem to connect to Goneril’s anger toward Lear.

One participant said: “She sounds angry, she wants to be left alone.” 

A participant: “You rocked that,” she tells the reader. 

I ask what Goneril’s objective might be and two ensemble members talk about some ideas. We try it again on our feet with a new cast. They do great! One of the participants stumbles over a lot of the words but has a calm and collected approach to Goneril’s frustration. I ask them how it felt and the ensemble member shares: “It felt okay. Some of the words were hard.”

We talk about the moment before this scene, in which Lear slapped a servant and how that motivates Goneril in this scene. We talk about Lear’s choice to give up his power and his inability to actually do so – “You [Lear] being disrespectful.” The ensemble decides Goneril’s sister will feel the same way. 

The ensemble has the idea to make Oswald the servant that gets slapped and to stage this prior to the scene. A new reader takes the idea of being slapped as Oswald and grabs her cheek in pain on her first line. Everyone laughs at this choice. I ask how they felt after. One shares, “That was fun.”

We move forward to Act 1, Scene 4. It’s a very long scene and we figure we won’t get through it all if we want to get some of it up on our feet, which we’ve been trying to do as we move from scene to scene to get it into our bodies and deepen our understanding and joy. An ensemble member does the Fool’s speech and I say after that it could be a fun rap. “You and I are on the same page,” another participant exclaims.

The group really connects to and enjoys the fool. “I love him. Listen you dumb. I might be a fool but you’re dumber than I am.” We laugh about all of his metaphors and jokes. “I love when someone gets roasted in Shakespeare.”

We finish running the scene and we talk about how it felt. “It’s good trying to put into action,” one ensemble member shares.

We talk about the Fool’s speech. I read the Shakespeare text and another ensemble member reads the modern English translation. I ask the group what they think of the Fool’s advice:

An ensemble member: “Don’t believe everything you hear – wow that’s us here.”

As we continue reading, we’ll discover what the price of power truly costs Lear.