If you are interested in a play about a Queen and her relationship with her three sons, make your way to William Shakespeare’s “Lear” at Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga running through September 28th.
This is the story of a mother, the Queen of Britain, who divides her kingdom between her three sons, only to feel their backlash.
The major difference in this Shakespeare history is the gender change at the very top. King Lear is now Queen Lear. Why?
Because in a society which is inching ever closer to race, religious and gender equality, not to mention equal pay for equal work, a female Lear just makes sense. Maybe even too much sense.
Shakespeare, in maybe his greatest play, challenges us to think about our leaders and who they serve in language that soars like an eagle and bites like a cobra.
We, the audience, are asked to consider not only who we are, but why we are, in poetry steeped in romance, rhythm, rhyme and cadence.
Shakespeare invariably also touches on family here, as he so often does, and our need, or lack of need, for it.
The most important playwright ever also asks us to think about what is right and wrong, and what we can do to further what we consider the correct thing to do.
If nothing else, Shakespeare is better than any playwright in history at making the specific general.
Here the love Lear has for her three sons can be seen as the love mothers have for their children everywhere, until they see that love as betrayed and seek revenge.
Indeed, Shakespeare takes great courage to attempt, and even greater talent to do well.
Co-directors Ellen Geer and Melora Marshall do a brilliant job of bringing Shakespeare to life. Using the entire stage and set, this “Lear” stays true to the playwright’s intention, motivation and language mainly by staying true to itself.
The scene where Lear goes mad high above the stage in the tree branches is breathtaking, and were Shakespeare alive today, would make even him tremble.
Inevitably, Geer and Marshall help the play shine through like a full moon on a clear night.
How does a nation fall?
By neglecting what made it a nation in the first place. Here, the co-directors’ focus on the disintegration of Lear’s family and kingdom make clear what they believe Shakespeare’s opinion of war and peace to be.
The two directors seem to have a motivated, committed and capable cast on their hands willing to go the distance in bringing the Bard’s profound, and sometimes complicated, emotions and ideas to the stage.
Standouts include:
Alan Blumenfeld (Earl of Gloucester) plays his role with the stamina and grace of a thoroughbred. He understands and comprehends Shakespeare’s needs and desires thoroughly and dutifully.
Abby Craden (Igraine) displays the inner and outer beauty only a Shakespearean heroine can. Her riveting and powerful turn belies a deep sensitivity, startling compassion, uprorius sense of humor and bold stage presence rare to most actresses.
Aaron Hendry (Goneril) gives a strong turn as one of Lear’s three sons. His confidence and firm belief in his character mark his every word and action. Hendry’s only fault is that many lines seem to come out at the same high pitched volume. But his passion for and belief in the language and poetry and the reasons behind them more than make up for it.
Christopher W. Jones (Regan) is true throughout. He does not stray from the motivation of his character. Possessing a grace and possibility few actors can touch with a ten iron, Jones is the perfect Shakespearean hero. His innocent and contrite demeanor is on display through the entire play, and we, the audience, better for having seen it.
But is is Willow Geer (Eden) who runs away with the show. Her spontaneity and flat out love for the material pull her in and never let her go. Hers is a dark, yet free and fascinating talent that provokes, ponders, pantomimes, but in the end, overpowers any fears that lay in the way, leaving only our doubts and moods in the wake with the falling leaves that dot the stage.
This is an actress in a category all her own. This critic, for one, hopes to see her on the stages of Los Angeles again very soon.
In the end, “Lear” is a success not because it was meant to be one, but because through intuition, ardor, abstention and the beauty of nature it becomes one.
There is no plan for a play to touch on the human condition. Yet, this one does like a rainbow touches air.
There is no easy way to write for and about women, yet “Lear” concentrates on both with an intense focus hard to break.
The first of four plays by Shakespeare to be staged this season at Theatricum Botanicum, "Lear" proves that the theatre is more than a factory for the Bard, but one of the best places in the country, if not the world, to learn about Shakespeare, and put that knowledge into action.
What more can be said about the playhouse on North Topanga Canyon Boulevard, except that it is paving the way for theatre in a city where film and television have long been considered king.
WHEN:
Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Sundays at 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS:
Adults: $37 (lower tier); $25 (upper tier), Seniors (60+), Students, Military Veterans, AEA Members: $25/$15
Children: (7-12): $10
Children 6 and under: free
HOW:
(310) 455-3723
WHERE:
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum
1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.,.
Topanga, CA 90290
Photo:
Melora Marshall. Aaron Hendry (Goneril), Ellen Geer, Christopher W. Jones (Regan)