in the world that he has helped to create. The use of video projections on the back wall of the theatre helped the audience to explore the inner world of the central character. But it was the performance of Bica, illustrating a slow dissolution of anger, to bewilderment, to acceptance, that provided the moving heart of the play. The minimal set, props and costumes gained power over the course of the performance. The great coat that Lear wore throughout was a symbol of his power to begin with and then gradually became a burden but also a blanket, his only shelter from the elements. Similarly, the bowl which he banged to alert the audience and his absent daughters to his needs, rang louder but more hollowly, as the performance progressed and his calls were not answered. In some ways, the most powerful symbol on stage was the dead fox fur (with head intact), a symbol of a time when his daughters were able to wear 'what thou gorgeous wear'st' (2.2.443) but now a lifeless memory, devoid of spirit or even muscle and bone that might have sustained the aging Lear. The empty drained shell of a once living creature lay across the back of the chair that acted as his throne, as a reminder that this was all that was left of his retinue. The King who could command armies and family members alike was forced to beg for forgiveness from the audience, since no one else remained. The final lines of the adapted text '"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" I thank you' presented both a prayer and an entreaty. After such a long line of stagings of the play in the Romanian theatre, Bica's Lear managed to draw the traditions together, entering the play a king and exiting it a man, having purified himself of suffering, and cleansed his soul of human guilt, he exorcized his mortal sins and came to a place of healing his inner universal conflict. The audience forgave this sweet and bitter fool everything. The performance provided a cathartic portrait of paternal care and old age for those lucky enough to be gathered in the Studio Theatre in Craiova that day.
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