King Lear decides to split his kingdom between his three daughters, basing each one's portion on her declaration of love for him. Goneril and Regan offer adulation and lies and earn control of Lear's kingdom; Cordelia, who is honest but unflattering, is disowned and bartered into a political marriage. Meanwhile, Gloucester's bastard son Edmund deceives him into rejecting his legitimate son Edgar. As this great tragedy of mistaken judgments unfolds, greed and lust for power result in cruelty, madness and death. THE STAGING: Set in the near future when relations between England and France have faltered and international policy is as fragile as the mind of the aging monarch.