king lear

Through the use of costumes, setting, blocking and sound, Kosky creates an adaptation that is quite revealing and shocking to a contemporary audience today. Produced in 1999, this version of King Lear created much controversy as it was believed to suggest incestuous ideas about the family in the play. One main concept, which influences the accusations about Kosky's production, is the costuming. Lear's three daughters were dressed very similar to the traditional Japanese dress for geisha girls, who are trained to dance and entertain men for money. This suggests that Lear's daughters were a form of his own entertainment. Also the blocking of the daughters had them lying at the King's feet, which also influences this idea. The King's strong, powerful language and the loud, sharp beats after he speaks may represent the authority and power that Lear holds over his daughters. This also reinforces the idea that the three daughters are nothing more than slaves used for Lear's entertainment only.
             Kosky's play can also be interpreted as an example of Freudian psychology. Sigmund Freud was a leading psychoanalysis in the study of the subconscious mind shortly after World War 1. Freud believe that " repressed incestuous desire for Cordelia was the cause of Lear's madness, and Cordelia's silence at the beginning of the play is due to her continued desire for her father." Kosky's play supports Freud's theory through the incestuous themes and motifs suggested in Act I, Scene I of the performance. This theory is relevant to the ideas of contemporary society today as the psycho-sexual theories are accepted much easier than they would have been when the play was written in the Elizabethan times. Kosky's interpretation of Lear is supported by Freud's theory, but is still seen as controversial, not contemporary by the critics and responders of the play.
             In Michael Elliot's cinematic construction of King Lear, Act I, Scene I can be viewed as a traditional interpretation of King Lear.