MABOU MINES PGM 3: LEAR '87 ARCHIVE, PART 2

Directed by Jill Godmilow

2001 / 336min

Having worked with Mabou on FAR FROM POLAND, Jill Godmilow (who passed away in late 2025) decided to undertake this epic Frederick Wiseman-style fly-on-the-wall documentary of the 1987 rehearsal process for Lee Breuer’s gender-reversed production of Shakespeare’s KING LEAR, starring Ruth Maleczech. Never-before-screened theatrically, Godmilow’s film subtly juxtaposes the play’s themes of power and renunciation with the company’s collaborative working process and the state of the women’s movement at the time. Featuring Greg Mehrten, Ellen McElduff, Karen Kandel, Bill Raymond, Honora Fergusson, and Breuer and Maleczech’s children Lute Ramblin’ and Clove Galilee, alongside Isabell Monk of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS, Lola Pashalinski and Black Eyed Susan of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, and Ron Vawter of the Wooster Group, as well as a score by electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros, LEAR ‘87 is a sort of LET IT BE for the company – a one-of-a-kind document, capturing Mabou at a crossroads in its history, before many of its first generation of collaborators would go their separate ways. Kandel, Maleczech, Mehrten, and Monk all won Obies for their performances. “If you have any brains, you know you’re going to be thinking about it for the rest of your life.” –Michael Feingold, THE VILLAGE VOICE