The Bard and Me

Today we had a table read of William Shakespeare's play, King Lear, and I got to read the role of his eldest, greedy, hard-hearted daughter Goneril. She plots with her sister to spend as little as possible of the wealth their father bestowed on them. Although she starts the ball rolling, I have to admit that her sister Regan does her one better. Goneril wants her dad to get rid of half his hundred men (just more mouths to feed), but Regan wants him to bring only 25 to her house. In the end, both Goneril and Regan agree that King Lear needs no men to protect him and refuse to feed even one.

It was my first chance at doing Shakespeare since I did a modern version of Hamlet in high school. It was great fun and I'm looking forward to next Sunday when we'll do another read of it. Then it's on to doing a real stage reading of it.