Chukwudi Iwuji and Clarke Peters (photo: Joan Marcus)
If we acknowledge that the world we currently live in is a colossal
mess with more countries than not in utter chaos and controlled by leaders losing
their grip, we can see how "King Lear" resonates for our time and
perhaps all time. So this is probably exactly the right time for Shakespeare's mad
and maddening king to come back full circle at the Public Theater's Free Shakespeare
in the Park where it was selected to be the very first free production in the
park in 1962. It was staged only one more time in1973 before the production that
is now being presented through August 17.
There probably also
isn't a classically trained actor worth his sea-salt who, upon achieving a
certain demented age and degree of confidence who doesn't aspire to play the
title character. How lucky am I to have had the privilege of seeing some mighty
fine Lears over the years, including Sam Waterston and Kevin Kline at the
Public, Frank Langella and Ian McKellen at BAM Harvey Theater. I was also
impressed by the Lears played by Harris Yulin and Daniel Davis at the Shakespeare
Theatre of New Jersey.
Dramatically exposed
madness not only makes for good theater but also makes analysts of its
observers. Objectified madness reigns in art. The diva who conquers the
operatically expressed madness of Lucia di Lammermoor; the prima ballerina who
envelopes the danced madness of Giselle may, indeed, enable a gifted performing
artist to use that character's madness as a propellant. But it remains (my
belief) for the actor, with his spoken words, to bring the abysmal darkness and
impenetrable and mysterious depths of the mind to us in the most accessible
terms.
It is with the spoken
words that I can say that John Lithgow is one of the most eloquently persuasive
and emotionally accessible of Lears I have seen. Scaling and conquering the
heights is no obstacle for the Tony Award-winning Lithgow whose performances in
the classical repertory have been as consistently lauded as those in
contemporary plays such as his most recent "The Columnist." Although
he gives by necessity a performance framed in turn by arrogance, humiliation, rage,
and finally despair amid senile foolishness, he engages us with the sheer force
of his dramatic dexterity.
The many dimensions
of reality and insanity seem hardly a breath away from Lithgow's awareness and
whose body seems burdened, if not harassed by his seedy garments. He also
sustains his heartbreak, as he carries (a feat not always attempted) Cordelia's
dead body on stage.
A big man distinguished by his impressive white
hair and beard, Lithgow's ability to hold us within the aura of Lear's rapid disintegration
is essential and he does it handily. Unfortunately, other key actors - Annette
Bening, Jessica Hecht and Jessica Collins - who are playing the important roles
of Lear's three daughters, appear more as disorienting distractions.
For some reason, under the direction of the otherwise
terrific Daniel Sullivan, all three seem to exist on stage only by right of their
oddly individualized and notably idiosyncratic attitudes. Although no stranger
to the stage among
many fine performances
in film, Bening offers a strangely remote and only vaguely credible delivery of
the text as the she-devil Goneril. She
is, however, no more misguided than is Hecht's certainly mischievous Regan whose
special gift for giving her lines a comical edge doesn't always work in this case.
Collins, presumably the one for whom we have the most empathy is almost a
non-presence as the uncomplicated Cordelia.
There is no denying
that filial ingratitude plays a large part in "King Lear," but as produced by the
Public Theater, the time we spend wondering just what the miscast Bening, Hecht
and Collins are experiencing here is unsettling. Notwithstanding the cheesy and
laughable sound effects created for the famous storm scene, set designer John Lee
Beatty has given the company a slightly raised platform and a large grey wall
with portals to suggest with a minimal stretch of imagination pre-Christian
Britain.
One has to be in awe
of the way the play masterfully blends two plot-lines. The themes of old age
and the different relationships of each child to his/her parent, in both the
main and sub-plots, brings universal timelessness to each new generation of
viewers. Briefly, the story details King Lear's misapprehension of his one
daughter's devotion causing him to divide his kingdom between the remaining two
daughters, who have feigned their love. The resulting web of deception by the
wicked daughters to strip their father of all power, and at the same time
involve and seduce Edmund, the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester (who has
the similar function in the sub-plot of deceiving his father by denouncing his
brother Edgar as a traitor), results in a downward spiral of devastating
proportions. The majestic sweep of the poetry is hardly surpassed in all of
Shakespeare.
Many of the
supporting players are, however, quite good in what is generally an unfocused staging. Chukwudi
Iwuji, as Edgar, gains our empathy not only for having to withstand having his
dirt smeared body protected by a loin cloth, but also for the impassioned delivery
of his lines. Eric Sheffer Stevens is convincing as his conniving false brother
Edmund. Jay O Sanders gives another one
of his outstandingly sturdy performances
as the Earl of Kent and Steven Boyer handily addresses the impish doings and
wise discourse of Lear's faithful fool. The Earl of Gloucester gets a fine interpreter
in Clarke Peters. But it remains for Lithgow to remind us that "King
Lear" is Shakespeare at his peak.
Billy Magnussen and Anna Gunn (photo: Joan Marcus)