Wordless King Lear rich in visual language

Singaporean actor Ramesh Meyyappan's patriarch is wholly tragic in his silence. Actress Draya Maria plays his daughter Cordelia. PHOTO: MOONRISE STUDIO

- Shawn Hoo

THEATRE LEAR Raw Material Sota Studio Theatre May 23 Theatregoers with an ear for Shakespeare's linguistic virtuosity will have much to relish visually in deaf theatremaker Ramesh Meyyappan's wordless rendition of King Lear, with its rich physical and scenic language.

Rather than a retiring King of Britain, Meyyappan's Lear is a resigned war veteran who returns deaf and defeated to his daughters Goneril (Nicole Cooper), Regan (Amy Kennedy) and Cordelia (Draya Maria). Medication intermittently soothes the patriarch's nerves, but Lear's deleterious temper puts a strain on his relationships.

Instead of King Lear's demented pleas for the winds to "crack your cheeks" and the thunder to "smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world", a curtain of black confetti like dark snow or a sooty rain falls on a kneeling Meyyappan, who waves his hostile hands against the skies.