Father Lear (at Avant Bard Theatre)

Performances

Mon Apr 19
Tue Apr 20
Wed Apr 21
Thu Apr 22
Fri Apr 23
Sat Apr 24
Sun Apr 25

No more performances this week.

Mon Apr 26
Tue Apr 27
Wed Apr 28
Thu Apr 29
Fri Apr 30
Sat May 1
Sun May 2

No more performances this week.

Mon May 3
Tue May 4
Wed May 5
Thu May 6
Fri May 7
Sat May 8
Sun May 9

No more performances this week.
Seat Group
Seat Group

FATHER LEAR

Book & Lyrics by Andrea & Michael Pemberton (Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show)

Music by Michael Pemberton

Directed by Artistic Director Elizabeth Dinkova

April 22-May 8, 2027

World premiere in a co-production with Avant Bard Theatre

THIS PART OF THE RUN WILL TAKE PLACE AT Gunston Arts Center, Theater 2, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA. 

Charismatic leader Father Lear has grown his church from a traveling music show into a major broadcast and cable network, thanks to the effort and charms of his daughters, the Lear Sisters. But as he rallies his followers to wage a spiritual battle against a demonic state and an imminent Armageddon, some begin to question if Lear’s mind is slipping. Immersed in a cult of personality against the backdrop of televangelism, this radical reimagining mirrors today’s live-streamed culture, where performance, faith, and authority blur in real time—and where collapse, like success, happens in public view. 


The newest creation by the team behind our award-winning musical “Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show”, Father Lear is a story about inheritance—of power, belief, and damage— as new generations grapple with whether to uphold, reform, or dismantle the systems that shaped them. Centered on the sisters’ inner lives and agency, “Father Lear” reclaims their narrative from patriarchal interpretation and places them at the heart of that reckoning.