Lear

In the fall, playwright and Oakland-native Marcus Gardley, known for his critically-acclaimed black odyssey at Cal Shakes, returns with Lear, a modern verse adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. The production will be co-directed by Cal Shakes’ Artistic Director Eric Ting and Aurora Theater Company’s Associate Artistic Director, Dawn Monique Williams, in partnership with Oakland Theater Project and with support from Play On Shakespeare. Set in San Francisco’s Fillmore District from the eminent domain crisis through to the subsequent displacement of the 1960s, and infused with a jazz score, Gardley’s deeply personal Lear reckons with uncomfortable legacies, with the consequences of our actions, and with the vulnerability and ultimate resilience of the human heart to find its way back again.