Actor, producer, director, and educator Abigail Killeen has taken to the boards once more to star in a much-praised, off-Broadway production of Shakespeare’s King Lear at one of New York’s leading experimental theaters.
Professor of Theater Killeen returns to the role of Goneril in a production by director Karin Coonrod’s Compagnia de’ Colombari, first staged in 2024.
As well as playing the role of villainous daughter, Killeen also plays the king in some scenes, in a group portrayal with the other nine cast members.
“This riveting play returns for a brief, unmissable run,” writes theater critic Sara Holdren in New York magazine. “In a stripped-down, beautifully envisioned production,” she continues, “every actor plays the king. Lear is the state, the state is Lear, and both are no more than a paper crown, until the final extraordinary moments when the monarch is at last revealed as mortal, frail, and alone.”
“There’s real pleasure in working on a text that offers clarity over comfort and with a director who digs unapologetically into the language,” says Killeen. “Demanding, humbling work with a generous ensemble—this is a gift with teeth.”
Karen Coonrod’s production of King Lear runs at LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City through February 8.
Read additional media coverage in American Theater Magazine.
