Intuitons to breathe life into classic Lear

The Intuitons Acting Company brings new life to Shakespeare's classic King Lear this Thursday, Friday and Saturday through a production of Edward Bond's updated work of the same title. With a cast of 13 members, the actors will perform Bond's play, which reflects a modified version of Shakespeare's original work. The three-act performance begins with King Lear's relationship with his two scheming daughters, who secretly compose a plan to marry their father's enemies and gain his land for themselves. After losing to his daughter's nefarious plans, Lear, played by college freshman Alan Sepinwall, wanders the land in a state of despondant delirium. Finally, he stumbles across a peasant, who lends moral and emotional support to the monarch, and then his wife Cordelia. Later, Cordelia rises against Lear's daughters, and in a climactic scene has them brutally slaughtered for their treachery. Although Lear is technically a free man, he suffers great physical and internal pain, especially when a greedy doctor removes his eyes for a personal experiment, and as he struggles to make sense of his lost land and status. "I am burried alive in a well. Does the suffering last forever?" cries Lear with eyes as blackened hollowed holes and his hands covered in the blood of his dead daughter. The newly formed peasant government ultimatley kills Lear, claiming he is a risk to their social structure. Thus, the main themes of King Lear center around the power struggle between Lear and his daughters, as well as the conflict between aristocracy and peasantry. However, while Lear initially claims that his daughters are cold and heartless traitors, he later hallucinates about living a peaceful life with them. Lear calls his daughter Fontanelle, played by College junior Marcie Levine, an "innocent child," and forgets about her malice when she lay on her death bed. Lear's daughter Bodice, played by College senior Dana Dorgan, symbolizes the doom that follows from power struggles, crying,"I have all of the power, yet I am a slave!" Producer Karen Reinhart, a College junior, said the cast has been rehearsing since the middle of January, adding that cast members display a full spectrum of age and experience. "We definitely have a mixture here," Reinhart said. "After practicing for at least four hours every night plus weekends, we're ready." King Lear opens tonight at 8 at the Houston Hall auditorium. The show runs through Saturday, and tickets cost $5.