I just returned from three weeks in Washington DC. If you are there, or you are nearby, I recommend checking out the Shakespeare in Washington 6-month festival. The program includes just about everything you could imagine, from traditional plays to movies to Skinhead Hamlet (will Hamlet be straight-edge?). The thing that takes the cake for me is this staged reading, which, if I read it correctly, will be a blending of LBJ and King Lear.
King Lyndon Lear and His Year of Crisis: A Staged Reading
SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Jun. 4Aging and willing to divest himself of his office and holdings, King Lyndon is beset by bad health, madness, and wars. Believing himself to be a great caretaker of his family of constituents and colleagues, he watches as those same constituents rise up against his policies and compel him to fight against mighty protests at home while he perpetuates an even larger war on foreign soil. Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, 8th and G Sts., NW, Washington, DC. (202) 275-0570.
I can't find any additional details on this, and it may be quite bad. But if the Duke of Cornwall looks like Robert McNamara, or if Lear says something akin to "We are not about to send British boys halfway across the globe to fight in France" I will be so happy I'll explode. Take a good look at this man; he clearly wants his daughters to overstate their affection.
