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February 13, 2004|Volume 32, Number 18



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A noted actor whose roles have ranged from Paul Robeson to Othello to Malcolm X, Avery Brooks (left) will star as King Lear in a production he collaborated on for two years with acclaimed director Harold Scott (right).



Yale Rep stages a 'King Lear' for the ages

"King Lear" director Harold and lead actor Avery Brooks believe their production at the Yale Repertory Theatre may make theatrical history.

To the best of their knowledge, the Yale production of the Shakespeare play marks the first time in this country it has ever been directed by an African-American director with an all-black cast. (See related story.)

However, Scott and Brooks say that the cast was not selected to make a statement about race in any contemporary sense but rather, to link both the timeless themes of Shakespeare's tragedy with a specific time in history and to explore the meaning of such links for subsequent generations of people.

The two collaborators set their production of "King Lear" in the ancient Olmec civilization in Mexico in order to place "a primal play in a primeval time," says Brooks, noting that the early, pre-Christian civilization was likely comprised of brown-skinned people representing a convergence of cultures, including African.

In Shakespeare's tale of a family torn apart and ultimately destroyed, the themes of parenthood, the end of a family line, love, greed and power can be connected in fascinating ways to the ancient Olmec civilization, which itself came to an end, say Scott and Brooks.

"The idea was to do a 'Lear' where we could talk about an ancient civilization -- one that was not made up -- and not impose a culture on the piece but rather to select a culture that would match it," explains Brooks.

He became fascinated with the Olmecs several decades ago after reading Ivan Van Sertima's scholarly study "They Came Before Columbus," in which the author argues that Africans were among the early peoples in Mesoamerica. Sertima points out that the colossal stone heads that are the relics of the Olmec civilization bear African features.

Brooks, who has collaborated with Scott on numerous theatrical productions and was his faculty colleague at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, passed the book on to the director. Scott, in turn, became interested in the African-Olmec link.

Once the two decided to produce a "King Lear" set in the Olmec civilization, they did meticulous research about the ancient people so that their production -- from basic props such as spears to the costumes and scenery -- would fit what is actually known about the culture. Some of the props, including authentic Zulu spears, were shipped to campus from faraway places.

"The main thing I had to work out directorially was -- while there are all of these magnificent Olmec archaeological remains -- I needed to know about behavior: how the Olmec lived, what they ate and what they wore," explains Scott.

He found the answers to some of his questions in books by Olmec scholars Michael Coe, the C. J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at Yale, and Clyde A. Winters. He learned through these scholarly investigations that the Olmec were a militaristic people -- a fact that, Scott believes, was also a nice tie to "King Lear."

Likewise, the two said that the cosmological elements of Shakespeare's work fit meaningfully with Olmec civilization and other early cultures.

"[In Shakespeare's work] there are so many references to the movement of the heavens, and in this culture -- and in African and other non-Western cultures, even that of American Indians -- there is this same cosmology, this same focus on the stars and on the spirit," comments Brooks.

Most dramatic is the symbolic connection that can be made between Shakespeare's tale of the end of a family lineage and the "vanishing" of a once-flourishing people, says Scott, pointing out that the Bard's drama begins with the king's festive decision to divide his kingdom among his three daughters and ends with the entire family dead.

"Lear and his family were the end of a particular line," comments Scott. "He has no male heirs, so his family presumably did not go on directly. But we know in Mesoamerica that there are still brown, red and yellow people: There are still people there. So my conception theatrically was that a family, or a culture, may be the end of a particular line, but other lines have come. My dream, of course, is that other lines will continue to come."

It is for this reason that Scott has placed a huge Olmec head, resembling the colossal stone relics in Mexico, in the center of the stage.

"It is the first thing the audience will see when they come in and the last thing they will see when they leave," notes Scott. "Emblematically, it was my way of making the point that some lines will vanish and other lines will come, but the Olmec heads -- the relics of a particular existence -- will still be there and still be honored."

Despite its unusual setting, Scott and Brooks note, their production remains a Shakespearean work in the purist sense.

"We have this African-American company, but we have no interest in calling this production a 'black Lear,'" says Brooks. "To do Shakespeare is to do Shakespeare; it doesn't matter what color it is. One of the challenges is to introduce to people the idea that African people most probably were here [in the Western hemisphere] and doing things long before the Europeans, which says something in our culture -- to our children -- that's critically important. But this is still Shakespeare, still 'King Lear' and all that that entails."

For Brooks, playing the role of the tormented king is a pivotal moment in his career and an experience that requires intense emotional investment.

"You have to 'live' Lear -- that's the only way to do it," says the actor. "It is very draining."

For Scott, the production brings him back to a play that he says he has "lived with" for some 40-plus years, having played the title role when he was 23 years old.

"It has all come back to me vividly," says the director, "including all of the emotional pain that comes with playing such a role."

Scott and Brooks hope the audiences at the Yale Rep will be moved both by the performance and by their unique twist in the setting of the classic work.

"I would want to see this not because it's never been done before [with an all-black cast led by a black director]," says Brooks. "I'd want to see it no matter what, because ultimately, what this play, this production, is about is life."

-- By Susan Gonzalez


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