You’d think that little could be said about King Lear that hasn’t already been noted. After all, the 400-year-old Shakespearean drama has made it to the stage from a variety of angles over the centuries. Next week, however, TheatreGigante’s Isabelle Kralj and Mark Anderson add their unique take on the legendary stage play in a contemporary deconstruction they’re calling The Lears.
Early in the show’s development, Kralj and Anderson made an open request for impressions about Lear. Those impressions and more make it to a studio stage under the direction of Kralj and Anderson, a pair of local theater professionals who have a reputation for breathtakingly poetic presentations. Jennifer Rupp and John Kishline will join Kralj and Anderson in a production sure to include the usual electricity that animates Theatre Gigante shows.
Theatre Gigante’s The Lears runs Nov. 18-21 at UW-Milwaukee’s Studio 508, 1925 E. Kenilworth Place.
Matt Kemple once saw a public marriage proposal get rejected. You could cut the tension with a knife. Now, he and a few others will try to emulate that kind of tension in a Milwaukee hotel room. Next week, Kemple, Rob Maass and Gwen Zupan star in a Pink Banana Theatre production of the 1999 Stephen Belber drama Tape. Kemple and Maass play old friends who meet at a hotel and have a confrontation involving their mutual history with a woman named Amy. It’s a very aggressive confrontation that has found the cast getting in touch with the darker side of human nature.
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As opposed to a typical theater venue, the intimate environment of a hotel room offers far less space between audience and cast. The actors will go to some interesting lengths to deliver on the reality of the script, too. For instance, the script calls on Kemple to have three beers at the beginning of the play. Kemple has found a way to have one beer stand in for three, but the distinctive smell of thatbeer will be in the air to add authenticity to the atmosphere.
Pink Banana’s production of Tape runs Nov. 12-21 at the Best Western Inn Towne Hotel, 710 N. Old World Third St. Tickets are available by calling 414-698-8991.
Theater Happenings
- On Monday, Nov. 8, Renaissance Theaterworks presents a staged reading of Two Sisters and a Piano, the Nilo Cruz drama about love and memories shared between two siblings under house arrest in Castro’s Cuba. Two Sisters and a Piano takes place 7:30 p.m. at the Skylight Bar in the Broadway Theatre Center.
- Also next week, the witty all-woman sketch comedy group Broadminded opens its latest show, Lions and Tigers and ... Zombies? The show runs Nov. 12-21 at the Alchemist Theatre.
