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cooee: continuous sharp, fit words for experiencing those who cannot grasp the innocent-lovely words of the Bard. My appreciation for your rich "snap" as well as your evident gift. Judy ----- Original Message ----- From: "cooee" : theatre snap Wed 17 August 2005 Superlatives in the ads for Lear softened us up for quite a night: King Lear at the Melbourne Theatre Company: ŒThe most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world¹ - Percy Bysshe Shelley. ŒNo play like this anywhereŠ is so terrifically human¹ - Alfred Lord Tennyson. ŒShakespeare¹s greatest play¹ - The Daily Telegraph. (Now why should The Telegraph carry such authority?) Well, we went, and the folk on stage, they did their level best - a low level. The veteran in the role of Lear early hit his shrill top anger note, the others hissed, fast-talkers with lines uncomfortable to them. The men all wore grey business suits, the women power-dressed, except of course Cordelia, gently understated. Lear¹s Fool was the same girl, a slip of a thing in a soiled slip; a voice-mike made her echo wanly. At the interval we hunkered down. Rain set in the length of the wide front row. We in the third row didn¹t get splashed. Through the steady downpour agony was evident OK, sheltering near a wrecked car body in a side-turned garbage skip. The gouging elicited audience shrieks. The fights were with silver pistols, bang bang bang. Gloucester rolled from the roof of that car wreck to a soiled mattress. I closed my eyes till the old words stirred me again: never never never never never. 17 August 2005 Max Richards