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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > May > 24 > Entry
Review: ‘Lear’
All too often, attempts to update Shakespeare can end up unfortunately misguided or flagrantly inappropriate, but director Rudy Ramirez’s vision of a matriarchal corporate empire works surprisingly well in Vortex Repertory Company’s production of “Lear,” running now through June 18.
Swapping a queen for a king and a sister for a son, Ramirez foregrounds gender roles without letting them consume the production. Queen Lear (Jennifer Underwood) retires under the media spotlight, leaving an empire to her two “loving” daughters, and Shannon Grounds gives us a surprisingly emotive performance as the fool. Amelia Turner gives an animated and evocative performance as Gloucester’s legitimate daughter (Edda), though in terms of the plot, this gender reversal is less directly affective.
Ramirez’s update sticks fairly closely to the original text, and though it takes liberty with the verse patterns, his production is thoroughly comprehensible Shakespeare. Not only do the actors clearly know what they’re saying, but the audience does too.
The language of the play lends itself well to the re-gendering and adds some interesting dynamics to the familial relationships. Coming from a mother to her daughter, Lear’s curse of Goneril’s womb resounds with particularly poignant vitriol.
Andrea Smith (Goneril) and Jennifer Coy (Regan) bring distinct personalities to the vicious elder sisters - Smith’s sincere and condescending Goneril is paired extremely well with Coy’s catty and ladder-climbing Regan. With powerful performances from all the Lear women, we recognize the faults of hubris on both sides of the generational divide and our sympathies shift as the play progresses.
A solid first act is followed by a short and chaotic second one, but the play regains its momentum in the third.
The production pulls us into a technologically inundated society, and many of the technological and media-related flourishes work well. Kent (Julianna Elizabeth Wright) is saddled with a house-arrest anklet, and the simpering Oswald (Trey Deason) is perpetually checking his Blackberry.
Placing much of the exposition in the mouths of newscasters is extremely effective at times, but often the production’s commentary on contemporary media detracts from the content of the play. Lear’s raging in a storm of paparazzi flash bulbs ultimately distracts us from the emotional impact of her descent into madness.
Similarly, Jason Amato’s lighting design does the production and the actors a disservice, inundating the stage with unnecessary heat and blinding side spotlights.
Overall, however, Vortex Repertory gives us both a solid performance of a classic play and a new take on a timeless tale.
‘Lear’ continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through June 18. Tickets $10-$30. www.vortexrep.org.
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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By Ryan Orsinger
June 13, 2011 2:19 PM | Link to this
Never before has any Shakespeare play made my heart skip a beat, let alone at a scene where I knew what was coming! Nor have I ever had goosebumps when a character’s corpse is dragged on stage, again when I knew it was coming! When’s the last time you spent the better part of a play with your eyes wide and enthralled and your jaw on the floor?
The most amazing part of seeing Lear’s televised breakdown was being torn between whether to watch the screen or look directly at Lear’s face. Jenny Underwood’s raw emotional power in this scene created an amazing tension between watching ‘the real thing’ or seeing the live projection on the screen behind her. You have to see this scene to feel it and see what I mean. It was like watching a race car crash or choosing to view the live broadcast on the big screen behind the real car crash. Which one is more engaging, more safe, or feels more real?
Kent tickled my ears with his cadence and rhythm, especially when matching words and wits with the Fool (who made me crack my chin laughing)! The execution was superb and the acting was top notch. Rudy Ramirez’s rendition of Lear is a world class play.
Bravo!