The Play’s The Thing

On a balmy midsummer night, there’s nothing sweeter than watching Flock Theatre perform Shakespeare under the stars at Connecticut College Arboretum. If, however, you’re one of the performers and you’re wearing layers of velvet robes or a suit of armor, well, then there’s nothing sweatier.

This summer’s season kicked off on July 21 with King Lear, and when the actor playing Lear said, “How shall your houseless heads … defend you from seasons such as these?” he meant every word. 

Egads, it was hot!

It was so sweltering on July 22, in fact, that Flock Theatre had to cancel the July 23 performance to give the cast time to recover.

“Friday night was pretty brutal,” says Flock associate artist, Michael Langlois. “Ed Phillips, who’s playing King Lear, was very ill. The heat from the previous evening had really hit a lot of the actors pretty hard. Ed felt like maybe he could go on, but the decision was made early in the afternoon to give the cast a chance to recoup and get back on their feet for the rest of the run.”

Ah, but the show must go on and that run continues tonight.

This is the first time Flock Theatre has performed King Lear, but it’s long been on Artistic Director Derron Wood’s list of things to do.

“In the Shakespeare canon, it’s one of the better known ones but it’s up there like a Hamlet,” says Langlois. “It’s a very tricky play to do. Both logistically and theatrically, it’s a bear!”

With intrigue and subtlety, epic battles and family feuds, King Lear isn’t an easy play to pull off. It requires a stellar cast and a director who can make the play accessible to all without losing any of the tragedy’s gravity. This year, the stars aligned to make that possible.

In addition to Phillips in the role of Lear, longtime Flock veteran Ted D’Agostino has returned home from California to play Kent. The king’s daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, are being played by Barbara Gallow, Hannah Schenk, and Danielle McGuire, respectively.

All but Gallow, who is new to Flock this year, have performed with the company for a number of seasons now. “Most of the cast members are actors who are returning to Flock,” says Langlois.

The company is keeping the set simple for this show, Langlois says. King Lear was inspired by a mythical pre-12th century English king, so the bucolic background of woods and lake seems fitting for the period.

The one big change this season is that, for the first time in several years, Flock is charging admission for performances at the Arboretum.

“We really didn’t want to do that but, in terms of the funding, the support wasn’t there as much as it had been in the past,” says Langlois. “A lot of granting agencies are cutting back and we didn’t get much in the way of anything. So in order to guarantee a certain degree of revenue that could help support Comedy of Errors, which will be free, we made a decision to charge nominal admission.”

Tickets are $10, which is lower than the company has charged in the past, Langlois adds.

King Lear starts at 7 p.m. tonight and will be presented every Thursday through Sunday until August 7. People are encouraged to bring blankets, picnics, and bug spray (although if you forget the repellant, the company usually has some on hand to share).

Comedy of Errors, the second production of the summer season, will be presented free of charge at New London Custom House Pier starting on August 11.

“We love being able to do that,” says Langlois. “We feel it’s really important to New London and to the region to be able to provide that service, that opportunity to see high quality theater for free.”

For more information about upcoming shows, call (860) 443-3119 or visit Flock’s web site www.flocktheatre.org.