Poor, Poor Lear
Written by
Nina SalLinen & Katja Krohn
performed by
Nina Sallinen
Walkabout’s First Ever Production: 1999
Remount at the CHopin: 2006
Returning in 2026
In this original dark comedy, 36-year-old actress Nina Sallinen, portrays a 90 year old Grande Dame (also named Nina Sallinen) of the Scandinavian Theater. The old actress has brazenly chosen Shakespeare’s King Lear as the material for her final artistic farewell performance. She has a special interest in the theme as she believes her own two daughters to be just as greedy and neglectful as King Lear’s. The performance, which she stages in her own apartment, unintentionally highlights the artist’s own life story, as she gradually becomes cognizant of the deeper parallels between her life and that of King Lear’s. Instead of shaking up her own daughters with her performance, the old diva shakes up herself. Her priorities and past choices come into question.