The stage had been finished; the fireplace was gone as if it had never been. Four spots with gels on the back wall waited to light a performance, and the rainbow upholstery was spic and clean. Tanya was sprawled mildly like a cat leaning against Joe's companion Maria, a sturdy woman with lank brown hair tied with a rubber band and wearing worn bluejeans and a tee shirt from a Mexican resort. Maria was holding a loose-leaf binder before her. Also reading, or at any rate holding open a European history textbook, was Lizzy, 12, stiff, prim, back straight against the back of the tier. The two graduate students, a pretty, black boy and a rather hard looking Cuban-American woman, were doing stretches on the stage.
Joe entered briskly from the left, walking naturally on the slanted stage, dressed in an old khaki shirt and khaki shorts, and carrying a clip board. He consulted his pages and said, "OK, let's go back to Scene XIII at Goneril's entrance."
Maria and Tanya separated, rose, and started toward the stage. They had played his adaptation of The Marriage of Figaro with Tanya as Susana and Lizzy as Cherubino. Now they were doing King Lear, which he had adapted to Queen Lear. He'd cut out Kent, the defender of the patriarchy, cut out that mealy-mouthed goody goody Cordelia as well, and taken for himself the part of the fool. If this did not teach them that authority is abuse, what would?
They had taught Tanya to shed her softness to play Goneril, and she stood frowning, maybe worried about the slanting stage, ready to command. Joe twisted his knee, bent his shoulder, cocked his neck, and loosened his lips to look sidewise up at Tanya. Maria as Queen Lear approached them with angry uncertainty.
| Maria/Lear: | What are you frowning about this time? |
| Joe/Fool (to Lear): | Someday you will have to care about her frowning, but now she thinks you are a cipher. I am better than you are now; I am a fool, but you are nothing. Yeah, I'll shut up; so your look bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, she that keeps only gold and land, will grow sick from them one day. (Pointing to Goneril) There's a bud that shall bloom blood. |
| Tanya/Goneril: | Your drunken knights are always fighting, I can't stand them. I thought if I hinted my feelings to you, you would catch the hint, but nothing happens and I'm afraid you like the way things are. If you like it this way, I'll make you pay. |
| Joe/Fool (to Lear): | Old woman, if you sit on the nest too long, the birds will pluck your ass feathers. |
| Maria/Lear: | Are you my daughter or not? |
| Tanya/Goneril: | Come on Mom, use the good sense I know you had once upon a time. Stop being so provoking and be the person I know you are. |
| Joe/Fool: | May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse? Whoop, Jug! I love thee. |
| Maria/Lear (turning to Lizzy and the two graduate students sitting on the rainbow upholstery): | Does anyone here recognize me? This is not Lear. Does Lear walk thus (crosses the stage humbly) Do I have Alzheimer's already? Can one of you tell me who I am? |
| Lizzy spoke up from the audience: | "You are Louis the 16th waiting for the flood." |
| Joe/Fool (aside): | The shadow of authority shortening in the noon of youth. |
| Maria/Lear: | I want to find out who I am; for, by the marks of sovereignty (Lear touches her crown, raises her scepter), knowledge, and reason, I thought I had daughters. |
| Joe/Fool (aside): | They will make you an obedient mother. |
| Maria/Lear (to Goneril): | Your name, fair gentlewoman? |
| Tanya/Goneril: | The way you talk is like the pranks you play. Now you've got to understand what I want. You are old and want people to respect you: you have to act wise. You're keeping a hundred knights in my palace; they infect our whole court like a disease. They're drinking and fooling around; it turns my palace to a rave. I'm ashamed and I want you to be ashamed. Please reduce the number of your followers and keep only the ones who know how to act their age. |
| Maria/Lear: | Darkness and devils! Saddle my horses; call my train together: Degenerate bastard! I'll not trouble you I have another daughter left! |
Maria/Lear glanced at Lizzy, who lowered her eyes to her history lesson.
| Tanya/Goneril: | You beat up my people, and your disordered rabble treats masters like servants. |
| Maria/Lear: | The hand that holds the power cannot loosen. (Joe thought that was one of the most terrible lines in theatre.) |
The pretty graduate student came on stage as Albany.
| Maria/Lear: | It's about time you showed up. (getting in Albany's face) Come on, where do you stand? (Albany raises his hand to Goneril with an inquiring look, but does not speak.) Well, then, prepare my horses. |
| Student/Albany: | My lady, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant Of what upsets you. |
| Maria/Lear: | It may be so, my lord. (Turning to the audience) Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess, hear! Suspend your plans, if you did intend To make this creature fruitful! Into her womb convey sterility! Dry up in her the organs of increase; And let from her rebellious body never spring A babe to honor her! If she must have kids, Create her child of spleen—that it may live, And be a hot disnatured torment to her! |
Lizzy, watching, her eyes slit between the history book and the stage, thought the queen hurried off because she feared an answer, feared Joe would mock her, feared Tanya/Goneril would break out in a curse of her own. It was exciting and scary.
