Lear

Director Karin Lind is talking to her father on the phone. "Are you crying, Dad? No storm knocks us down. We can cope with anything." The celebrated director Erik Lind is to stage King Lear by William Shakespeare. But, after suffering a heart attack, he has been hospitalised. His daughter takes over his legacy in order to save his last great production. Through stormy nights of rehearsals, she immerses herself into the story of the old King Lear and furthermore her own troubled relationship with her father. Shakespeare tells the story of the once mighty Lear now being old and weak. In order to reassure himself of his daughters' love, they are asked to declare their affection for him before divvying up the inheritance. The price is the largest part of his kingdom. The youngest daughter refuses such competition: she loves her father Lear the way a child should love her parents, no more, no less. However, this is not what her father wants to hear. Disappointed and angry, Lear rejects his youngest daughter. While working on the material of King Lear, Karin starts to doubt: how indebted is she to her father, who was tyrannical in the past and now lies terminally ill?
Falk Richter's adaptation of Lear, based on William Shakespeare's 1606 tragedy King Lear, emphasises the archaic images and poetic power of the classic and transposes them into the present day. How much suffering has been caused due to the hubris of our fathers? How do we learn to be mindful and renounce our own privileges? Falk Richter uses Shakespeare's Lear to focus on people who, in their downfall, must ask themselves anew about the possibility of self-knowledge, responsibility and forgiveness. It is said that we are the product of our environment, our families and parents. Yet to what extent does the intergenerational contract represent an inescapable foundation of our existence?