Erin Shield’s ‘Queen Goneril,’ set seven years before ‘King Lear,’ is playing in repertory with the Bard’s bleak tragedy at Soulpepper
“Just a reminder that when Shakespeare was quarantined because of the plague, he wrote ‘King Lear.’”
The award-winning Canadian playwright decided to take on the Bard, creating “Queen Goneril,” a feminist prequel to “King Lear” itself, arguably Shakespeare’s bleakest and greatest tragedy. The two plays are now being performed in repertory at Soulpepper Theatre, opening Aug. 25 and running until early October.
“King Lear,” a nihilist play permeated with death, chaos and hopelessness, follows an aging king who is shunned by his two malicious eldest daughters and forced to reckon with his suffering in a raging storm.