Lear
Lear Author: Edward Bond
First Performance: 1971, London
Published: 1972
Genre: Pol. drama in 3 acts
Setting: England, indeterminate period
Cast: 48m, 5f, extras
Lear is a tyrannical king of England who has built a huge wall to keep out his enemies, the Duke of Cornwall and the Duke of North. His daughters Bodice and Fontanelle rebel against Lear's despotism, marry the two Dukes, and lead armies against him. Warrington, Lear's aide, is captured and is horribly tortured by Fontanelle and Bodice, who drives knitting-needles into his eardrums. Lear, defeated, dishevelled, and mad, seeks refuge with a Gravedigger's Boy. Soldiers arrive, kill the Boy, and rape his wife Cordelia. Lear is captured, judged to be mad, imprisoned, and has his eyes removed in a surgical operation. Cordelia leads the fight against Bodice...
[The entire page is 408 words long]
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