Contemporary Legend Theatre to present 'King Lear' at International Festival of Arts and Ideas

As part of t he International Festival of Arts  and Ideas, Contemporary Legend Theatre will present two performances of “King Lear” at 8 p.m. on June 28 and 29 at the Yale School of Drama / Yale Repertory Theatre at 222 York St.

“’King Lear,’ a solo performance with three acts adapted from Shakespeare's King Lear, was premiered at Taipei in 2001. In this solo performance, WU Hsing-Kuo, the Artistic Director of the group, plays ten roles – King Lear, Fool, Dog, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, Earl of Gloucester, Edmund, Edgar, and Wu Hsing-kuo,”  according to a release by the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York.

“In1986, a group of Beijing opera performers, being keenly aware of the decline of traditional Chinese opera, began thinking seriously how to integrate traditional Chinese opera with modern theatre. 
"Thanks to the efforts of WU Hsing-Kuo, WEI Hai-Min, and other equally enthusiastic young Beijing opera performers, Contemporary Legend Theatre (CLT) was founded. Since its founding,CLT has been invited to perform abroad many times such as the Royal National Theatre, London; the Festival d'Avignon (France); the Asian Performing Arts Festival, Tokyo; the 40th Anniversary of Odin Theatre (Denmark); the Lincoln Center Festival in New York; and Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh,” the release said.

To learn more about: Contemporary Legend Theatre.

Photo by Dirk Bleicker, also provided in the release

Editor's note: All information and the photo in this post were contributed. (With special thanks to

Brian Su, director, Press Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York)