I went to see King Lear last night, and besides being very proud that the map I designed was the only realistic piece in an other-wise minimal and abstract set, it was a very good production.

I think the funnest part of seeing Shakespeare performed is how the director and actors choose to split up Shakespeare’s verbose writing. For example in the first scene of Lear, Lear invests power jointly to his two sons-in-law:

Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
With my two daughters’ dowers digest this third:
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
I do invest you jointly with my power,
Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
With reservation of an hundred knights,
By you to be sustain’d, shall our abode
Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain
The name, and all the additions to a king;
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
This coronet part betwixt you.

In the production, Cornwall and Albany kneel in front of Lear, and multiple times they rise thinking that Lear has finished giving his benediction. “I do invest you jointly with my power,” and they stand. And Lear pushes them back down as he revels in his grand moment. Theatricals aside, the other great joy of watching Shakespeare is how each actor latches onto particular words in a speech, words that a casual reader would pass by on the road to finishing the play. But I can’t remember any particular moments right now.