Lear

Playwright and Oakland-native Marcus Gardley, known for his critically-acclaimed black odyssey at Cal Shakes, returns to California Shakespeare Theater with Lear, a modern verse translation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. The production will be co-directed by Cal Shakes’ artistic director Eric Ting and Aurora Theater Company’s associate artistic director Dawn Monique Williams, in partnership with Oakland Theater Project and with support from Play On Shakespeare. Set in San Francisco’s Fillmore District from the eminent domain crisis through to the subsequent displacement of the 1960s, and infused with a jazz score, Gardley’s deeply personal Lear reckons with uncomfortable legacies.