Promenade with King Lear(s) over dessert at Bedlam

by Cyn Collins | 6/3/09Don’t drive, walk! Or bike or bus to the 4th annual performance of King Lear by not one, but five theater companies. Bedlam Theatre audience members will be led on a “5 dessert promenade” around Bedlam, being served five different desserts while enjoying experiments with King Lear by five radical theater companies from four different states.

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From June 4-7, Bedlam Theatre is hosting Trutheater Theater (Rhode Island), the Nonsense Company (Madison, Wisconsin), The (Loosely) Affiliated with Puppet Uprising Players of Pennsylvania (with Eric Ruin, formerly of Minneapolis), and Insurgent Theater (Milwaukee). The challenge is on to keep car audiences to zero. On opening night, June 4th, Bedlam is celebrating the two-year anniversary of their $2 program rewarding audience members making alternative transportation choices with $2 off their ticket price. Sponsored in part by a City of Minneapolis Climate Change Fund microgrant, Bedlam is attempting to honor this occasion with an entirely car-free audience. Plus, since Bedlam never does anything in a small way, in addition to the five-theater King Lear collaboration with five desserts, there will be before- and after-tainment for your sensory pleasure. On opening night, June 4, the King Lear performers will be presenting a special cabaret. On June 5, listen to Twilight Hotel, and on June 6 you won’t want to miss the sexy Spring Dance Party—because no one does sexy, spring, or dance parties like the Bedlam players and friends. Sunday, June 7, at 2 p.m. is a special performance of the newest work from Trutheater Theater: The Unbroken Circle of Things. During the performances you'll witness: puppets, shadow puppets, video projections, live music, smoke and mirrors, hilarious desconstructions, movement, folk songs, and some actual Shakespeare. This is not yet sold out. So Bedlam remains vulnerable to a driving audience, says bike advocate/chef Jim Bueche, but they are hoping to keep cars to zero. Photo courtesy Bedlam Theatre.

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