first night review: king lear @ THE Lupin Theater

King Lear plays as part of the New Orleans Shakepeare Festival (Photo: Brittney Werner)

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King Lear (New Orleans Shakespeare Festival) @ The Lupin Theatre
Review by David S. Lewis

Shakespeare’s King Lear is one of the great masterworks of the English language, and perhaps the pinnacle of Western drama. Written around 1605, the staying power of the play is thanks to the remarkable poetry in every line, its permanence having little to do with politics. The maneuvering around royal succession means little to denizens of democracies (or whatever we have now). It is easy to recognize the onset of dementia - here coded as “dotage” - and madness. Also familiar is the intense acrimony, too often seeded within families settling estates, particularly that which flowers after the death of a manipulative, love-testing patriarch. 

The play shows us Shakespeare's gift for bringing the macro closer. When we watch a TV show like HBO’s Succession, for example, we can squint and see our own familial archetypes represented, but must map them onto the excess of wealth and power depicted. Shakespeare, in spite of the Elizabethan gilding of the language, manages to focus our attention on the human hurt felt by these characters, and director Jana Mestecky deftly illuminates these elements.

When Lear wanders out into a raging storm in one of the most famous scenes in all of English literature, we live our fears of aging parents and grandparents wandering off into the night. When his daughters insist he doesn’t really require his full retinue of knights, receiving his forceful indignation, we may think of how it is to separate our elders from their car keys. I imagine more than a few of us watched Regan and Goneril vie for their father’s financial affections and bicker over who is to watch him and recollected similarly embittering conversations.

Mestecky makes the arcane and the ancient feel familiar without resorting to tactics of modernization: the setting and costumes are non-specific, but we know that this is from The Past. The sound and visual design are truly impressive without being distracting. Mestecky also empowers her actors, staging this Shakespeare in the round: the audience is seated around a raised circular stage. Every seat in the house gets a different perspective this way, and somehow that makes us more aware of the experience we’re sharing with the rest of the audience.

When John Neisler’s Lear reconciled with his cast-off Cordelia, I doubt my eyes were the only tearful ones (you can feel the agony of that feather in the play’s closing moments). Zarah Hōkūle’a Spalding’s Cordelia, despite relatively little time on stage, brings intensity; but it’s her turn as the Fool, the King’s loyal friend and personal satirist, where she shines.

Both she and Silas Cooper were scene-stealers in last year’s Caesar, and are such strong players in Shakespearean repertoire. Los Angeles’ Jeffrey Sugarman (Gloucester) also gave a noteworthy performance with another welcome return bring James Bartelle, who captivates in every role he touches: his Edgar has the only arc we can remotely feel good about.

King Lear plays at the Lupin Theatre at Tulane through June 7th, Click here for show information and ticketing 
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