Characters: The Fool (Dr. Bill McCauley) observes King Lear (Dr. Lonnie Polson).
Classic Players to bring 'King Lear' to BJU stage
BJU’s Classic Players will present William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” in four performances, Nov. 16 through 19, directed by Mr. Jeff Stegall of the speech faculty.
The play, last performed at BJU in 1991, has 20 cast members—10 faculty and staff and 10 undergraduate and graduate students.
The tragedy is a story of hate, deceit, sorrow and true love.
King Lear of England, played by Dr. Lonnie Polson of the speech faculty, who also played the role last time the play was performed at BJU, decides in his old age to divide the kingdom among his three daughters—Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. The one who loves him most will receive the largest portion.
As King Lear tests each of them, Goneril and Regan both sweet-talk their father, making him believe they love him most, while Cordelia, the true loyal daughter, played by Becca Hervas, a senior interpretative speech major, refuses to follow her sisters’ behavior but simply admits she loves her father as much as a daughter should.
“Cordelia can be best described as honest and sacrificial,” Becca said. “She is willing to sacrifice much because of her honesty to her father.”
Lear becomes angry with Cordelia’s response and banishes her from the kingdom. She then marries the king of France and returns with him to rule there.
“Unlike her sisters, she refuses to say what her father wants to hear but speaks the truth in love,” Becca said. “In doing so, she loses her dowry and, most importantly, her father’s love. Yet when she comes back to Britain and is reunited with her father, she holds no grudges.”
With Cordelia out of the way, Goneril and Regan begin to slowly remove all power from their father, eventually driving Lear to insanity and out into the countryside.
Also experiencing family problems, as part of the subplot, is Gloucester, a nobleman of England, played by Mr. Ron Pyle of the speech faculty.
Gloucester has an illegitimate son, Edmund, played by Mr. Abe Stratton, a graduate assistant in the speech department, and a legitimate son, Edgar, played by Philip Eoute, a junior broadcast engineering management major.
“Shakespeare crafted a very parallel plot and subplot,” Mr. Stegall said.
King Lear parallels Gloucester; the two evil daughters, Goneril and Regan, parallel the evil illegitimate son, Edmund; and the one virtuous daughter, Cordelia, parallels the one virtuous son, Edgar.
“Both (Lear and Gloucester) suffer much over the course of the play and yet die peacefully,” Mr. Stegall said.
Cordelia sends an army to Dover, where her father has been taken, attempting to save him.
“My favorite scene is (when Cordelia is) reunited with her father,” Becca said. “I believe it can be an extremely moving scene. Here is a father who completely disowned her for nothing but her honesty, yet she comes back to him with a completely open and forgiving heart. That is love.”
Becca said that though it’s her favorite scene, it’s also the hardest.
“I have to really concentrate on what Cordelia must be going through,” she said. “Capturing that true love and forgiveness on stage is a very hard thing for me.”
With memorizing lines and the actual rehearsals, much preparation and concentration is required. But Becca came into her role with somewhat of an advantage.
“I (did) King Lear as a two-person show for a graduate recital,” she said. “And I just did it again as a three-person show this past summer. So, I pretty much knew my lines already. However, it is hard to add in lines where I am not used to, or to subtract them. Sometimes I want to say lines that aren’t in my script because I said them before in the other shows.”
Maintaining concentration after the lines have become familiar is something Becca said is hard to do.
“Even though I know the words, I try to imagine that I am saying them for the very first time,” she said. “I try hard to concentrate on that moment in the play (and) to envision what that character is feeling at that moment in order to make the words genuine.”
But she said the long hours have been well worth the experience.
“I am beyond thankful for the opportunity I have to play Cordelia,” she said. “I feel I am learning so much more through the actual experience than I could sitting through a lecture on acting. It has been amazing.”
