I SAW A PLAY, ONCE. . .

"King Lear"
by William Shakespeare, produced by The GoodmanTheater, directed by Robert Falls and featuring Stacy Keach in the title role.

Awful!
This powerful drama of Shakespeare's was smothered with Robert Falls' stage extravaganzas. Consequently, I could never quite decide who the Protagonist and Antagonist were, thus making difficult following the story line. Nor does Falls employ even the most rudimentary of stage techniques that help an actor to be seen and heard. Much of the dialogue was lost as actors upstaged themselves, tripped over each other in uncoordinated traffic patterns and/or sat there looking glum. And then there's our famous Mr. Keach doing a pleasant and amusing homeless, old man who wandered naked in a junk yard, and who would, from time to time, strain his carotid arteries to convince us that he was indeed angry, thus: "O! I am angry! O! I am very, very angry!

I won't go into the rest of the production affectations that Robert thought "dramatic." They were simply ugly, filthy, vulgar, obscene, heavy. . . very heavy!

Falls, by the way, did manage to get his personal Protagonist into the act: The female men's lavatory-attendant in the opening scene. Nothing to do with Shakespeare nor King Lear, mind you--a total prefabrication, but. . . . but! she was an accurate reflection of Mr. Fall's Self: Forlorn. Pathetic. Despised. Abused. Exploited. There, in the form of this woman, sits Falls in a corner of a men's lavatory waiting to receive nickles, dimes & quarters from the male patrons in exchange for handing out toilet paper.
HEY, FALLS!
That's not Shakespeare! That's YOU! You're letting people urinate and defecate all over you in exchange for your position as Artistic Director at The Goodman! And guess who your Antagonist is: The Audience! (subscription, no less) When are you going stop being a wimp and stand up to them!