Farewell to New Burbage

In what has become a Christmas tradition for me, I spent the beginning of the holiday break with the New Burbage Theatre Company.  This year it was the DVD set of Season 3 of Slings & Arrows.  The journey began two years ago with their production of Hamlet, and then it continued with Macbeth last year.  This year, the company staged (or attempted to stage) King Lear.

The third season's theme was very darkly comic.  It was a season obsessed with death.  King Lear itself is not exactly a plethora of laughs.  Add to that the lead, Charles Kingman, who is himself dying and wants to stage the play before he passes from the Earth.  In other festival happenings, Darren Nichols returns to direct a musical about a heroin-addicted prostitute.  The entire season was in macrocosm its own Lear.

For being fairly heavy, as Season 3 drew to a close I was left with a thought:  Bravo!  It was a terrific close to what was a terrific series.  The characters, both new and old, have become like old friends, and it has been a pleasure to revisit them.  William Hutt as Charles Kingman was marvelous.  He was suitably crusty and belligerent, a perfect depiction of such a role.  (As it turns out, this may be the only filmed version of his Lear.)  One of his off-stage lines was a highlight of the season.  In a cast meeting, he delivers the following commentary.

"If they'll accept that Lear has a black daughter, they'll accept anything."

Having seen plenty of live Shakespeare, I could sympathize with this statement, even if it garnered an obscenity tossed his way by another cast member.

As the curtain dropped, I will admit that there was a certain sense of loss.  The Festival was left basically in a shambles.  Charles Kingman was able to fulfill his dying wish with a marvelous performance of Lear.  Cast members moved on to other opportunities.  And the final season of Slings & Arrows was over.  What to do now?  There are still plenty of DVD special features to explore.  What about Christmas 2016?  The beauty of DVDs is that they can be re-watched.  Perhaps I'll start all over again...