A Temporary Ensemble Puts on King Lear

 

En tillfällig ensemble sätter upp Kung Lear (A Temporary Ensemble Puts on King Lear)

Lilla scen, Stadsteatern, Stockholm

Seen with friends MR and AR 24 November 2023

A hapless director, Andreas (Meyer) is a heart-warming bumbler who agrees with everybody, whose wife is the star of another production, and whose kids he has to fetch from school, while trying to direct King Lear with three actors:

Ulf (Rabaeus) – a pro and he lets everyone know it. Essentially Rabaeus plays himself, he’s known as an arrogant, ego-tripping know-it-all and it reveals a healthy dose of humour and sardonic self-awareness to play this part.

Berit (Benson) – a has-been still living in her glorious past as an actor in the radical theatre of the 70s (which, in fact, Mia Benson was, but she’s far from a has-been). Here, she reads her lines like a robot and Ulf is quick to tell her the right way to do it.

Larissa (Lazcano, who also wrote and directed the play) – a young radical feminist ghetto poet who hates the whole idea of King Lear but gave up several big roles at the Royal Dramatic Theatre to be in this production. And she has a secret…

Then they get directives from the bosses of Stadsteatern – they are to shorten the play, accept commercial sponsors and see to it that they get huge audiences.

It’s laugh-out-loud funny, it’s satirical, it pokes wicked fun at the cold commercialised cultural climate in todays’ right-wing Sweden. The cast is brilliant and the Melody Festival ending is wonderfully glittery and foot-stomping.

There isn’t a whole lot of Lear, but, oh, it’s a lovely spin-off.