No Fooling, Minneapolis writer releases play "Lear's Fool: I will not Go to Bed at Noon"
Shakespeare-inspired play released by Minneapolis author delves into the intrigues behind the politics of King Lear.
- (1888PressRelease) October 18, 2011 - Minneapolis-based writer Joseph Gergen's first play, Lear's Fool: I will not Go to Bed at Noon, takes a look at the politics behind the politics of Shakespeare's "King Lear".
Ten years in incubation Lear's Fool was recently released in electronic format for the Kindle, Nook and iPad and is available as paperback on Amazon's Create Space.
Lear's Fool is about the intrigues behind the intrigues in Shakespeare's King Lear. With a clear nod to the Bard, Tom Stoppard and chaos theory, Lear's Fool follows the machinations of the Fool, Edmund, Edgar and others in this backstory to King Lear.
With interest in the Bard renewed yet again with the release of the movie "Anonymous," which tackles the enduring Shakespeare authorship mystery by attributing the plays to the Earl of Oxford, Lear's Fool joins a long history of Shakespeare inspired works.
"After I first saw "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard, I was totally inspired,' says Joseph. "I wanted to write like that. The idea that you could combine Shakespeare and humor and philosophical ideas and yet not have to write like Shakespeare: that was for me."
Lear's Fool is a full length two act play where the ideas of influence and power are explored and exploited in a political world just outside the eyes and ears of King Lear. In fact the play wrestles with the anticipation of and the fallout from Lear's decisions without inviting Lear into the dialog or into the play at all.
"I was intrigued by the idea of a Fool with an agenda," says Gergen. "It is kind of a twist on the "power behind the throne" concept. No one expects the Fool to be the power."
The story is set up when King Lear chooses the Fool, the child of Lear's now deceased and beloved steward, to be the court fool. The Fool, who has been sent to study abroad with Edgar and Edmund and has absorbed as much knowledge as he could get his hands on, determines that the wonderful gift of existing in this world of power cannot be squandered. He believes he can influence the fates of those around him and that of his country even though he holds no power of his own whatsoever.
"I was reading a lot of chaos theory at the time I started and the butterfly effect concept worked its way into the Fool's psyche. The idea that small well-placed actions could disproportionately influence the outcomes of much larger systems seemed like a good premise."
Joseph is a furniture designer and builder, fiddler, former corporate junkie and writer from Minneapolis, MN.
"I've taken a circular path to authorship. I left college thinking I would be a writer, decided I didn't know enough to write anything and now have come back to writing years later knowing even more about how much I don't know but not caring."
Learn more about Lear's Fool and it's availability at his blog (http://learsfooltheplay.com/)
or on FaceBook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lears-Fool-A-Play/234664426563853)
You can also check out his furniture designs at www.artnujo.com.
Contact:
Joseph Gergen
612-270-6887
learsfooltheplay ( @ ) gmail dot com
Minneapolis, MN
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