Sisters reimagine ‘King Lear’ in Bridge Street Theatre’s ‘Storm Still’

CATSKILL—Three estranged sisters reunite in the backyard of their late father’s home and revive the wildly inventive childhood game through which they once performed Shakespeare’s King Lear, in Gab Reisman’s Storm Still, running October 1–11 at Bridge Street Theatre.

Directed by Jasmine Roth, the production features Katherine Callaway as Cordelia, Jess Kadish as Regan, and Elizabeth Loycano as Goneril, with scenic design by Mark Perry.

Over the course of a single late-summer evening, the sisters sort through a lifetime of clothing, furniture, and family history while launching into a fast-and-loose reenactment of Shakespeare’s tragedy. They trade characters, turn household objects into crowns and costumes, and each take her turn playing Lear—transforming the backyard into both a kingdom at war and the landscape of their shared childhood.

As the game unfolds, so do sharply different memories of the father they have lost and the choices each sister made as he declined. Part eulogy, part drinking game, and part childhood make-believe, Storm Still explores grief, caregiving, estrangement, and the complicated ways families inherit—and carry—both love and harm.

Playwright and director Ashleigh Ann Gardner called the play “a lovely, buoyant, effervescent, female-centric re-thinking of one of Shakespeare’s most heart-wrenching plays.”

Storm Still will be performed October 1–11, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at Bridge Street Theatre, 44 West Bridge Street in Catskill.

Tickets are $30 for adults and $25 for students.

For tickets and additional information, visit www.bridgest.org/storm-still.