Staging a production of King Lear has sometimes been compared to scaling a mountain. The play is considered (by some) to be the playwright's finest work, and it is often treated with reverence and, perhaps, terror. The Milwaukee Repertory Company opened its fall season with this powerful work. What they have achieved is a production that is both riveting and accessible. While this won't be the Lear to suit everyone's taste, it certainly does an exemplary job of highlighting the themes of Shakespeare's work. Less importantly, it also does a good job of delineating the characters so that the audience is not confused by which actor is playing what earl or duke. That is no small matter, because Shakespeare took great pains with details. Each character contributes to the overall plot and theme, and it is important to consider this when staging the play.
The result is that this Lear draws out some depth in the minor character as well as the major ones. For this is not just a chamber piece between an aging king and his ambitious daughters; it is a play of epic proportions that covers an extensive kingdom.
The old king, whose mind is perhaps not as sound as it once was, decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters. His reckless decisions are the foundation upon which the entire play is based. Like buzzards, two daughters circle him and confuse his mind even further. The third, Cordelia, is banished.
Director Joe Hanreddy has stated in the program notes that his goal is to capture the "dark, mysterious beauty" of the play. The set is certainly dark and mysterious (more on this later). The characters, though, are quite clear in their intentions -- which often consist of overthrowing the king. A last-minute substitution of the actor playing Lear (due to an onstage injury prior to opening) places Mark Corkins in the title role. Corkins easily slips into madness, becoming almost a dazed character out of "Alice in Wonderland." He throws off all traces of kingly majesty by the play's end, becoming what the two conniving daughters (now dead) wanted all along -- a man who has outlived his time.
Corkins is physically well-matched for the role. He is tall, dark-haired, and his voice evokes the air of authority. His best scene, by far, is when he is cast into the wilderness during a storm. The set almost shakes apart in the storm's wake, as Lear stands quietly as if listening to the wind. He draws comfort from his fool (played by one of the company's interns, who replaced another ailing actor), and a wild-eyed madman (brilliantly played by Gerard Neugent). Neugent's performance is almost as memorable as Lear's, though he has far less stage time than Lear in which to impress the audience.
Other impressive performances are delivered by Michael Duncan as the Earl of Kent, and Brian Vaughn as one daughter's husband.
The play moves briskly along despite its three-hour plus running time. Some excellent swordsmanship near the end livens things up, as does the final gasp of the foolish king.
Now, more about the production values. Although the period costumes are beautifully rendered in velvet and leather, they seem odd when seen on the high-tech, contemporary set. Much of the set resembles the planks of a wooden barn, or perhaps the insides of some primitive machinery. Long chains extend from an industrial grid above to the wooden floor below. The chains make the set seems confining rather than illuminating. Endless scene changes involve the turning of a raised, pointed triangle. Perhaps this represents a compass point turning in the wind? In any case, the actors are hard-pressed to make elegant entrances and exits from this pointy fixture.
The show's wigmakers have earned their keep in this production. They have outdone themselves in creating twisted coils upon the heads of the two "evil" daughters. The lighting, too, is commendable. It creates a dark, shadowy space upon which the players are alternately hidden and revealed. This production demonstrates that King Lear is still to be approached with reverence and trepidation.
