(photo by the Actors Co-op Theatre Company)
King Lear, by William Shakespeare
Directed by Marianne Savell; Produced by Rebecca Hayes
Any company chosing to tackle Shakespeare’s King Lear does so with ambition. Paring down the play to fit a small performance space also provides a challenge, in that you want to give scope to Lear’s madness, allowing for epic scenery chewing. The Actors Co-op and director Savell take on the masterpiece and deliver a fresh rendering of the well-known work.
The setting has been transfered from ancient Britain to the 1850s California, with only minor changes to the play. Cornwall, albany, France remain designations and titles, but they are treated as personal names and titles rather than geographic names. The one important geographic “setting” comes when blind Gloucester (well-played by Steve Gustafson) asks to be taken to the clifss that he may kill himself. In the original, the location is Dover, but in this version he asks to be taken to “Marin.” Happily, this trans-location works.
Gustafson brings a blustering worldliness to Gloucester that plays to his gullibility about the relative worthiness of his sons. By contrast, Richard Soto’s Kent (given a touch of Native American/Hispanic flavor) shines with earnest loyalty (and a humorous bluntness in dealing with treachery and folly). Conniving Edmund (Gloucester’s ambitious but bastard son) gets a “charming baby-face” representation from Nathan Bell, while Edmund’s legitimate half-brother Edgar, well-played by Joseph Barone, goes from amiable party-boy to determined survivor with credible humanity.
The dynamics of Lear’s daughters are important to the play, since they are the ones shuffling the pawns about. Heather Chesley gives Goneril all the presence an eldest child carries, particularly one who thought she had every reason to inherit all as eldest. Her bitterness lies buried deep, but once it rises she cannot stop. By contrast, Teresa Bisson’s Regan, is as sharp and imperious as one could expect from a middle child who has had to fight for attention. The part of Cordelia often gets the “sweet, delicate flower” treatment, but not in this production. Tawny Mertes’ Cordelia is straight-forward and unpretentious, but she radiates intense, committed loyalty. When Lear casts her off, we know exactly why France is pleased to claim her as his bride.
But of course, any proudction of this play rises or falls on the performance of its Lear. Happily, this production has Bruce Ladd at its heart. He throws himself into this role, giving Lear a light, comedic fussiness that barely covers his tragic blind assumptions and pitiable confusion. While Gloucester gets blinded in fact (well and shockingly staged here), Lear’s blithe and blind misunderstanding of what he has done is fully embodied in Ladd’s performance.
Savell’s direction lets every passing glint of humor flash like a tiny nugget of gold in a rocky Old West stream. The Fool, played by Leticia Moore, gets to milk all the comedy of being the wise one near the king, but each of the others have their moments. Savell has gotten her actors to have fun with Shakespeare’s word-play, which gives the audience a needed safety net of humor for the play’s plunge down the mine-shaft of tragedy.
The play runs Friday, Saturday and Sundays through April 3, 2011, in the Crossley Theatre on the campus of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves good theatre. You won’t be disappointed by this show.
Check out the company’s website at www.actorsco-op.org. Or you can find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ActorsCo.OpTheatreCompany.
