This might be interesting....

[cyrano]

This is the first year I've come to Ashland without having had a chance to pre-read the shows I'm going to see. Hamlet does not worry me, but I've never read Henry VI and I don't remember how familiar I am with Twelfth Night.

Comments

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's not the same. The idea is to pre-hear the words, at least in my head, so that I don't spend all my energy deciphering what they're saying. I think my hearing issues play into this a lot.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Could be. I take your point, but I've found that a good set of actors can mitigate this quite a bit - if *you* know what you're saying, you can make it clearer through use of body language and such. I remember seeing a rather poor University production of King Lear and being completely confused, and then seeing Twelfth Night by a really good company (and director) some years later. The language was equally difficult, but the difference in comprehension was night and day.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree that a good presentation can help immensely, and Shakespeare will also do that G&S thing where he'll repeat the important stuff just to make sure y'all got it.
I haven't read Lear all the way through, but I would think that the concepts/language would be more subtle or intricate and thus trickier to convey. Does it still break down pretty much the same, when the play hits the proscenium so to speak?