A collision between Shakespeare’s King Lear, Sesame Street, and Young Jean Lee’s own take on the theme of dealing with a father’s mortality, Lee’s LEAR focuses not on the aging Lear and Gloucester, but rather on their adult children who turned their backs on their fathers’ suffering. An absurdist tragedy about familial piety, despair, and the end of life.

  • Photos Blaine Davis
  • Video Documentation Figura Media, LLC

Written and directed by Young Jean Lee
Produced by Caleb Hammons

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY

  • Paul Lazar
  • April Matthis
  • Okwui Okpokwasili
  • Pete Simpson
  • Amelia Workman

SUBSEQUENTLY PERFORMED BY

  • Matthew Maher

DEVELOPED WITH

  • Nathan Darrow
  • Maria Dizzia
  • Jim Himelsbach
  • Paul Zimet

CREW

  • Associate Director Lee Sunday Evans
  • Dramaturg Mike Farry
  • Choreographer and Stage Movement Director Dean Moss
  • Scenic Designer David Evans Morris
  • Costume Desiger Roxana Ramseur
  • Lighting Designer Raquel Davis
  • Sound Designer Matt Tierney
  • Production Stage Manager Anthony Cerrato
  • Assistant Stage Manager Miranda Huba
  • Assistant Directors Morgan Gould and Joshua Lubin-Levy

Soho Rep, New York, NY
January  2010

Swing Space at LMCC, New York, NY (Workshop)
October 2009

Chashama, New York, NY (Workshop)
May 2009

LEAR is a commission of Soho Rep (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director). It is a project of Creative Capital and the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. With funding from the Greenwall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Residency support provided by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space program (space at 14 Wall Street is donated by Capstone Equities),  Hedgebrook, and Ucross.