“The King (Lear)” is Magical and Gripping

I confess that Shakespeare’s play, King Lear, has never been one of my favorites. But the performance of “The King” by John Basinger at Oddfellows Playhouse last night was gripping and made me see the play in a totally different way. Tonight is the final performance, at 7:30 p.m., and I highly recommend it.

Basinger speaks only the lines of Lear, from the mind of a dreamy or deranged character who sees the other characters in the play – his daughters, their husbands, and others – in pieces of broken furniture, a pole, or a broom. The lines of the other characters are imagined in the King’s mind. I know, it sounds bizarre and perhaps farfetched, but it works like magic. Basinger makes the humanity and torments of Lear come alive in a way I’ve never experienced before. If you love provocative and imaginative theater, don’t miss it.

And don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the play already. You might want to look up a plot summary before you go to the theater, but you don’t even need all that. Here are the rudiments of the dominant story line. The King divides his kingdom between 2 of his 3 daughters, Goneril and Regan, but withholds a portion from his 3^rd daughter, Cordelia, because she does not repeat the excessive flattery of her sisters. Cordelia is banished to France. Now securely in possession of their inheritance, Goneril and Regan abuse their powerless father in various ways. Lear ends up homeless in a rainstorm, crying out to the goddesses, and there he encounters another victim of familial treachery, Edgar, disguised as Tom the Fool, who appears in the form of a forked stick perched on Lear’s arm. They commiserate and philosophize together. In the end, the King is comforted by his one true daughter, Cordelia, when she returns from France. Cordelia dies in his arms.

Extracting the character Lear from Shakespeare’s script takes the play to a more psychological and slightly more abstract level, so the power of Lear’s voice shines out and engages the audience’s own imaginations more deeply.

The production is a fundraiser for Oddfellows Playhouse. Tickets are $25, $12 for students. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. Call 860-347-6143 for reservations.

The King (Lear) featuring John Basinger

The play, conceived and adapted by John Basinger, is the story of King Lear, from one man’s perspective – Lear’s. The performances will benefitOddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater. The production is directed by James Stidfole and produced by Hygienic Theater of New London.

“The King (Lear)” will be performed Thursday February 9, Friday February 10, and Saturday February 11 at 7:30pm

Oddfellows to present “The King(Lear)” Featuring John Basinger

“Attend the Lords of France and Burgandy, Gloucester.” And so begins the journey of "The King." Is this the definition of insanity? Is this man the reincarnation today of the real King Lear? Is this man an actor who, having performed Lear so many times that he can't get out of the role? Is this man simply one of us obsessed with the tragedy of life, both then and now, that he is compelled forever to repeat his errors?

“The King (Lear)” will be performed Thursday February 9, Friday February 10, and Saturday February 11 at 7:30pm.

The play, conceived and adapted by John Basinger, is the story of King Lear, from one man’s perspective – Lear’s. The performances will benefit Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater. The production is directed by James Stidfole.

Said Basinger, “I had really decided that to take on King Lear for a full production in 2009, I needed to begin learning the part so I could fully commit. It took me a good year, year and a half to get it all in my head. When it looked like the production would falter after Jeffery [Allen] left, it struck me that it is really an odd play – so much of the play goes on around Lear and is enacted by other characters. Having done all of Paradise Lost as a live performance, recreating the characters, it wasn’t much of a leap to say, this could be done with [King] Lear.” Basinger describes The King as a “one character play, whose sole character speaks only Lear’s lines.”

Basinger might be best known throughout central CT for his marathon performance of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” from memory. Basinger began his career in theater 43 years ago with the National Theater of the Deaf, touring a good portion of the world with them. Since that time he has appeared in movies, taught theater at Three Rivers Community College, slammed poetry and wrote and directed plays, most recently the outdoor historic drama, “Benedict Arnold: A Brave Revenge” presented in Groton in 2003.

Artistically, Basinger believes that there is a wide range of interpretation that can be brought to this character through this adaptation. “Certainly, you can see doing it as an exercise in theater – how to solve the problem of Lear. There is a problem with Lear, a serious problem. It has been cobbled together from several pieces. There is not an explanation of Lear’s dilemma. It is right there. Other than being the inciting incident for all of this other action, you don’t need Lear. He is not an agent of action. He gives away his power at the beginning, and then we don’t need to listen to him rant and rave. So part of this is an experiment for how to explore Lear.”

Tickets are $25.00 for adults and $12 for students and can be purchased by calling the box office at (860) 347-6143 or online at www.oddfellows.org

Oddfellows programming is made possible through the generous support of the CT Department of Education, the CT Commission on Culture & Tourism, The Middlesex United Way, The Stare Fund, the Middletown Commission on the Arts, Pratt & Whitney, J. Walton Bissell Foundation, CDBG Scholarship Program, WESU 88.1FM, Triple Frog, Comcast and the Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Memorial Fund.

John Basinger, Book VIII

(Adam reclined, and so does John Basinger in his marathon performance of Paradise Lost at the Buttonwood Tree.)

I was finally able to find 45 minutes in which to witness John Basinger's incredible feat and performance of Milton's Paradise Lost, from memory, at the Buttonwood Tree this weekend.

Book VIII, is an important one, and one which Basinger has peformed frequently.

Surprising to me, he had an audience of 16 on a Sunday afternoon, two weeks before Christmas.

His performance is not about perfection, he occasionally calls for a line from Susan Allison, a circumspect prompter, who feeds Basinger a word or a line, and off he goes for another hundred lines. The hours of performance have taken some toll on the performer, but Basinger's interpretation of Milton is still filled with energy, passion and good humor.

Basinger occasionally interrupts his performance for an aside, an explication of the text, an anecdote about a previous performance, or to greet a newcoming audience member.

"Ed, welcome" he said, as he saw me sit. "Where are the boys," he asked referring to my twin sons."

"Home, reading Chaucer," I replied to a belly laugh from Basinger.

In the stretch of Book VIII, through which I sat, Basinger covered Adams discourse with the angel Raphael, for whom Adam recounted his conversations with God, his naming of all the creatures on earth, and the creation of his mate, Eve.

Whether Basinger would complete the final four books before day's end, was still a question, but Monday is reserved for any lines unspoken.

None ever wished it longer than it is

(John Basinger brandishes his tattered memory book.)






John Milton was born 400 years ago, and my apologies to Middletown Eye readers for neglecting to highlight the celebration by Wesleyan University this past week.

All but one celebratory event has passed.

And that one's magnificent.

John Basinger will be reciting, from memory, the entire text of Paradise Lost, all twelve books, in a marathon session that runs over two days at the Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main Street, Middletown, on Saturday and Sunday, December 13 and 14..

If you don't think the memorization and dramatic recitation of Paradise Lost is amazing, refresh your memory on the length and poetic density of the work here (this GoogleBooks version includes the famous criticism of the work provided by Sam Johnson, which serves as the title of this blogpost - the entire essay is worth reading since Johnson's critique appears only after pages of praise.)

"In 1993, I decided I wanted to do something for the millennium," Basinger said recently in a bemused recollection. "Something that was millennial. I thought, why not choose something wildly challenging, and Paradise Lost came to mind and it stuck."

Basinger looks every bit the part of the professor emeritus/actor he is, a fierce intellect masquerading behind a wisp of tousled red hair streaked with grey, and a ready smile. A witty joke is always at hand, as is a pithy thought, passed poetically.

Basinger made his millennial goal, memorizing two books a year.

"After finishing the first two books, I thought, 'Oy, oy, oy. Where the hell is the beauty?'" Basinger recollected. "But I have a bit of a stubborn streak."

Immediately after memorizing the first books, Basinger began to perform them, adding books as he committed them to memory. Basinger is not sure he's ever found the beauty in the epic poem he expected to find.

"His (Milton's) intent is not to create a beautiful image," Basinger suggests, echoing some of what Dr. Johnson wrote in his 18th century introduction. "His eye is elsewhere. There is not much sentiment. Not much passion to be found.'

While Basinger is rightfully proud of his achievement, and has been praised for his performances of Milton's masterpiece, he is sure that he is not the first to have mastered the poem.

"In previous times there were people who realized there was value in memorizing it," Basinger said. "And I've found some evidence in my research. There is a rumor that Harold Bloom had done it. In fact, he claimed to have done it as a child. Well, allright, Harold."

Basinger chuckles at the thought of even a precocious child committing the muscular poetry of Paradise Lost to memory.

"I'm morally certain that I'm not the first to have done it," Basinger said. "In these times, it's not too hard to imagine that I am the first, or the only."

Basinger's performance begins Saturday morning, December 13 at the Buttonwood Tree, beginning at 10 a.m. The performance continues through Saturday and Sunday, with Monday reserved in the case that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Finding Paradise Lost

John Basinger, educator, actor, author and long-time resident of Middletown, began memorizing John Milton's "Paradise Lost" in 1993. It's quite a daunting task seeing as there are 12 books and Milton wrote in the poetic language of 17th Century Great Britain. The first edition was published in 1667 with a revised edition 7 years later.

Basically, it's the story of "the Fall of Man", specifically Satan's dealings with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Milton allows the reader to see the "first couple" before they discover sin, how they lived and how the poet imagined they treated each other. One also gets a fuller picture of Satan, how he organized his followers and how he engineered the fall.

Now, there is a video of Basinger performing all 12 books, recorded in concert in 2001 on the stage of the Basinger Auditorium at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich. The facility, so named to honor his 2-plus decades of teaching there, gives him the room to move, to stage the piece, to make the words become part of a performance that is highly dramatic and riveting.

The video not only features the 600-minute performance (recorded over 3 days in 2001) but also an extra disk with interviews, music, and more. For more information, go to www.paradiselostperformances.com where you can also view snippets of the show and read more about this amazing theatrical event.