“Know that tis my fast intent
To shake all cares and business from my age;
Conferring them on younger strengths.
Tell me, my daughters, which of you shall we say doth
Love me most?"
Inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear and turned into a musical tragicomedy en travesti, Queen LeaR is both popular and high - as required by the Elizabethan tradition.
The show was written by Claire Dowie, set to music by Enrico Melozzi, directed and performed by five drag queens - perfect contemporary declination of the Shakespearean fool.
Queen LeaR is our latest production and has both an English and an Italian version. The latter made its debut in January 2019 in Teatro Carcano in Milan, while the English version still has to be performed.
The Shakespearean themes are now associated to a contemporary, stark atmosphere, where castles become studio apartments, the moors are retirement homes, and the madness turns into senile dementia. In this harsh world the old “queen” has no place to go but an old people’s home and here her epic visions – knights, wars, and medieval kingdoms – come to life.
Queen LeaR deals with uncomfortable issues of our time, such as old age, social integration, illness and death, with our style: overlapping genres, pop music quotes and ironic, over-the-top – but not for this less authentic – characters.