“King Lear”, from the homonymous work by William Shakespeare, comes to Leiria for the World Theatre Day.

The words of the text have immense power inside and refer to so many things of the past, as well as of the future and of that symbiosis between human and natural, between the stone and the flesh, the vegetable and the spirit.

In this sense, words and things are objects of freedom, gestures in search of their liberation and that bring us simultaneously: paradoxical feelings. Of gratitude and ingratitude.

Gratitude for having each one’s life to live, and ingratitude (filial and not only as expressed in Shakespeare’s text) for our infinite inability to love everything.

The process of being alive is synonymous with cruelty. There is a beauty in our internal deterioration that is more than a static appeal. It is a vital need that escapes the aesthetic apprehension of the world.

We are not just talking about feelings, but about the life that carries and raises them. This pursuit is part of those vital reasons that animate the movements of our being and soul.

In the end, we are left with a stupefied and shaken feeling inside. It is at the same time a heat and an ice when we realize that things change and that we cannot embrace them or fix them.

To launch ourselves to the heights that call us and raise what is humanity in us and to descend to the depths and integrate “our darkest purposes” as Lear tells us right at the beginning.

To go beyond what is physical in us and risk living our lives. That is what Shakespeare’s text encourages us to do above all else.

“King Lear” takes the stage at 9:30pm.

For more information, contact José Lúcio da Silva Theatre (244 823 600).