This season’s revivals of Our Town and King Lear cut swaths from their original texts in order to emphasize a shared theme.

The third act of Thornton Wilder’s play — now on Broadway, in a truncated production — revolves around the idea of how quickly life speeds by, to such a degree that it’s almost impossible for mortal beings to properly appreciate the preciousness of our finite existence. Chopping the text immerses us in this existential brevity.

And King Lear’s text-chopping — now at The Shed — underscores how quickly sociopolitical AND personal stability can unravel.

In other word, how quickly…

“…Things fall apart; (when) the (aged) centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.”