Montana Shakespeare in the Parks presents King Lear

SEELEY LAKE - It's mid-August in Seeley Lake and that says "Montana Shakespeare in the Park." Alpine Artisans' 2 Valleys Stage and Double Arrow Lodge are once again hosting this free event, Monday, Aug. 15 at 6 p.m. Bring a lawn chair and a jacket. Double Arrow is providing food and drinks for sale. Families are encouraged!

This year's play is "King Lear," a tragedy that portrays an entirely shattered world. What follows are excerpts from a plot description by the author of Shakespeare in Montana, Gretchen E. Minton:

"King Lear is the story of broken families. At the beginning of the play, Lear foolishly demands that his daughters publicly declare how much they love him. Such a request results in flattering and disingenuous answers from the first two daughters Goneril and Regan. When the youngest Cordelia refuses to play the game and says that she has nothing to say, she is banished.

This instant fracturing of the Lear family is echoed in the subplot in which the Earl of Glouchester mistakenly believes his son Edmund's claim that his other son Edgar is plotting against him.

Glouchester orders Edgar's arrest, so the young man must flee to prevent his own father from ordering his execution. Both Lear and Gloucester are blind to truth, blind to those who really care about them. These opening scenes thus set in motion a series of events that cannot be repaired in the world of this play, as people react impulsively and all too often violently, to changing circumstances.

King Lear is the story of broken minds. From the outset of the play, we know that Lear is not stable or rational. Quickly, it becomes apparent that this is not just the rash behavior of a megalomaniac. He is going crazy and he knows it.

King Lear is the story of a broken country. Lear's scheme to divide his kingdom between his three daughters and their husbands is politically fraught. He draws lines on a map of his country, creating borders where there had been none before. Because of this action, civil wars are inevitable and Britain descends into the chaos of war.

King Lear is the story of a broken future. We all know the convention that almost everyone dies at the end of a tragedy and Shakespeare follows suit. Even more troubling is the fact that no women are alive at the end of the play, so it is unclear how a new generation could be born.

Tragedies provide us with stories, poetry and pathos that allow us to share our grief with others, across time and differences. The tragedy in King Lear is caused by the breaking apart of families, minds and countries. Repair lies on the other side of the tragic experience, when we reach out to those we hold dear, speaking what we feel."

This description was excerpted from an article in the 2022 Clarion, published by Montana Shakespeare in the Parks.