“Speak what we feel not what we ought to say.” A quote from Edgar in Act V; Scene III of Shakespeare’s King Lear, one which actually did make it into this rendering of King Lear as presented by The Rude Mechanicals at the Greenbelt Arts Center through September 7th 2025. Often a show will sit and rankle with me, because of a certain line, a certain choice, a certain approach,
“Such welcome and unwelcome things at once ‘tis hard to reconcile.” Macduff, ActIVsc.iii
I spent hours trying to find the way I felt about the current Rude Mechanical’s production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth only to have Billy Bard having already wrapped it up for me more than halfway through the show. This particular production is a balancing act of strong performances, questionable conceptualizations, impressive technological inclusions, mismatched aesthetics, and a barrage of death,