Sunday, April 8, 2018

King Lear


King Lear
Royal Shakespeare Company
BAM Harvey Theatre
April 7, 2018

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Academy of Music
& Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of King Lear, now playing at Brooklyn Academy of Music, is not to be missed.  This phenomenal company of actors, under the direction of Gregory Doran, boldly tells this tragic tale of family loyalty and personal honor.  The events are clearly woven and build to a sweeping and passionate conclusion.  The set and costume design by Niki Turner is dark and majestic.  It satiates the expansive space of BAM’s Harvey Theatre with stark and stunning, emotion-filled shapes and images.

King Lear (played by Antony Sher) decides to divide his kingdom and distribute it to his three
Antony Sher as King Lear
Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Academy of Music
& Royal Shakespeare Company
daughters.  He first asks each of them to declare their love for him.  His eldest daughter, Goneril (played by Nia Gwynne) glibly professes words of loyalty and devotion.  His second daughter, Regan (played by Kelly Williams) cunningly tops her sister’s proclamation.  His youngest and favorite daughter, Cordelia (played by Mimi Ndiweni), seeing through the veil in her sisters’ sentiments, does not reply.  This breaks the heart of the king.  He immediately disowns her, sharing his kingdom between his two “loyal” daughters.  When the Earl of Kent (played by Antony Byrne) speaks in defense of Cordelia, he is banished.  Meanwhile, Edmund (played by Paapa Essiedu), the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester (played by David Troughton), is plotting against his father and half-brother, Edgar (played by Oliver Johnstone).  When Goneril and Regan turn their backs on King Lear, he leaves the court out of contempt to them both.  While on his journey, he descends into madness as he faces his sadness, flaws, and wrong doings.  Edmund joins Goneril and Regan to gain power over the kingdom, as Cordelia finds her father and tries to nurse him back to health.  Unfortunately, they are all too steeped in dishonor to be redeemed.

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Academy of Music
In King Lear William Shakespeare launches a highly complex plot with varieties and layers of family betrayal.  The play clearly illustrates powerful themes of how love and loyalty are deeper than mere words and trifling action.  The older characters (Lear and Gloucester) are easily swayed by declarations of loyalty from their children and followers.  Their dependents (Goneril, Regan, and Edgar) know how to manipulate this need to gain favor and power from their superiors.  The younger characters (Cordelia and Edmund) do not partake in duplicitous gesture, yet stand on their own integrity and speak from their hearts.  These family stories of love and betrayal are timeless and, although told through royalty, universal.  The fall from grace in the royal family makes the tragedy highly dramatic, but no less poignant.

This production is magnificently conceived and superbly delivered.  King Lear is playing at the BAM Harvey Theatre through April 29.  Go see it!

Domenick Danza

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