Early on in Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Fool tells the titular king something that will define him for the rest of the play, saying “Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.” Indeed, Lear’s lack of wisdom in the ongoing production at American Players’ Theater is what leads to his downfall.
The play follows Lear, King of Britain, who is ready to abdicate in favor of his three daughters, on the condition that they profess their love for him. The two older daughters, Goneril and Regan, flatter and butter up their father with promises of false love, while the youngest, Cordelia, refuses and is banished. The following war for power ends the play with carnage, madness, and the second largest death count of any Shakespearean tragedy, topped only by Titus Andronicus.
King Lear is an ensemble vehicle, and APT’s supporting cast fills in what little dead space there is with interactions as fascinating as those taking center stage. Particularly interesting to watch are the vignettes between Jade Payton and Danny Martinez. During a violent scene, they cling to each other and Payton hides her face in Martinez’s shoulder.
Kudos also to Kelsey Brennan and Laura Rook in their stellar turns as the older sisters, Regan and Goneril. Brennan plays Regan with an icy fury, while Rook’s Goneril begs the question: Might she have turned out better had her father loved her more? A nod should also be given to Christopher Sheard as Goneril’s loyal servant, Oswald, who takes most of the beatings in the play with a grace that makes it look easy.
Cristina Panfilio plays the Fool with sensibility and a dry wit, well tempered by Greta Oglesby’s Duchess of Kent, who brawls, serves her king, and spits hard truths, whatever the consequences.
The effects for the production are nothing short of spectacular, as the eerie score that punctuates the action with martial drumbeats and cello interludes. In the famous scene where Lear screams his frustrations at a thunderstorm, lightning flickers, thunder crackles, and rain pours down, soaking Lear and the Fool.
Lear, played by veteran Core Company member Jonathan Smoots, is magnificent to watch in his transformation from powerful king to grief stricken madman. Smoots plays his madness not as a snap, but as a decline that begins so slowly that the change is barely noticeable until he’s wandering the woods in a flower crown.
It should be noted that, in a refreshing twist, director William Brown doesn’t try to paint sisters Regan and Goneril as power hungry monsters who betray their own father in their bloodlust. He humanizes them to the extent that their frustrations with their aging father are not only understandable, they seem natural. Furthermore, in his production, it is the women (with the exception of Edmund) who take what they want. Perhaps not the most moral sentiment, but certainly refreshing from an author whose female protagonists tend to spend most of their time bemoaning the inherent weakness of their sex.
The modernization of the tragedy brings striking comparisons to our own political landscape, and makes the actions of the characters that much more accessible. Although we might say we would never stoop so low for power as some of the characters, we’re just as human as they are. As much as we hate to admit it, it could be any one of us.
