Queen Lear, Ronnie Dorsey Productions

/ Assembly Roxy/

Queen Lear     
Presented in English   
Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
August 4-29, 2016

“No one will remember me; only killing makes history.' Enclosed in her chamber with her Confessor and her trusted Nurse, the Queen faces the ordeal of giving birth to the King's longed-for son and heir. Moving between reality and delirium, she fears for the survival of her child as she reveals the hidden story behind Lear and his ambitions. An intensely lyrical imagining of the untold story behind Lear's forgotten Queen. A powerful drama from Ronnie Dorsey, writer of A Fine Line and Of Sound Mind.” --description from AssemblyFestival.com        

Ronnie Dorsey Productions
Written and directed by Ronnie Dorsey
Cast: Mary McCusker, Jane Goddard and Alice Allemano                                                               

This show was also previewed at New Diorama, London.

Selected Reviews:
The Stage review (3 stars): "Ronnie Dorsey has written a touching tribute to women's ability to bond over shared pain and disappointment. Rather arbitrarily and unconvincingly, she has attached it to Shakespeare, to no great effect."
https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2016/queen-lear-review-at-assembly-roxy-edinburgh-moving-portrait/

BroadwayBaby review (3 stars): "a re-telling of Shakespeare’s Lear story from the perspective of his queen, confined in her chamber while pregnant with his expected male heir." "Expect discussion of men’s violence and cruelty, pleas for the recognition of motherhood and a small touch upon one of Shakespeare’s favourite topics, swapping gender identity" "The scriptwriting is lyrical, drawing on Shakespearean language as its inspiration but possessing a style of its own that stops it from becoming too stilted."
http://broadwaybaby.com/shows/queen-lear/714169

TV Bomb review (2 stars): "a prequel to King Lear... poetic and evocative, and offers an interesting depiction of the wife King Lear must have had, but disappointingly replaces drama with exposition."
http://www.tvbomb.co.uk/review/queen-lear/

Producer Interview:
http://edinburghfringe.thepodcastcorner.com/2016/08/11/edinburgh-fringe-show-6-thursday-11th-august/