In this Saturday, May 18, 2019, photo actor Jeffrey Carpenter, center, portraying the character King Lear looks over a large quilted cape that depicts his kingdom as he performs in the opening of the Quantum Theatre production of Shakespeare's tragedy at the site of the old Carrie steel producing blast furnace in Swissvale, Pa.
Quantum Theatre is using the backdrop of the Carrie Furnace for its production of the bard’s bleakest tragedy, which tells of grief and madness, family values gone wrong and a powerful king brought low. The Carrie Furnaces are the last remaining structures of what was once the thrumming heart of the Homestead Steel Works, which produced steel used in the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and other iconic structures. The furnaces along the Monongahela River were built in the 1880s and operated until 1982. Only furnaces No. 6 and No. 7 remain. They’re among the only surviving pre-World War II blast furnaces in the United States, and are designated National Historic Landmarks.
After Act 1 in the shadow of blast furnace, the audience — armed with flashlights — takes a quarter-mile walk to a garden amid a circle of trees, surrounded by acres of nature that’s reclaimed itself at the site. It’s meant to evoke the English countryside.
Warwood's Karla Boos is the artistic director and founder of Quantum Theater
That is a pretty cool backdrop