Queen Lear

the long version

Calgary-based playwright Eugene Stickland tells the story of an ageing actress cast in an all female production called Queen Lear who has employed a young girl to help her memorize her lines. Struggling against fear and her ageing mind, the actress questions whether or not she is too old to remember her complicated lines, to play the part well or to bring anything valuable to the production. The young girl, having just lost her mother, struggles to understand and relate to the elderly woman, and as many adolescents, she is desperate to grow older and be allowed to make her own choices. Both women want to be recognized as the strong, talented and intelligent women they are regardless of their ages, and yet cannot help but see each other through ageist lenses. Musing on the different stages of life that both women exemplify, illustrating beautifully how time and experience separate them, this comical and touching story about the strength of the female spirit is not be missed.