Shin Kurokawa Photos
Compagnia de’ Colombari's King Lear.
Compagnia de’ Colombari’s production of King Lear at University Theatre — whose first performance was part of Friday night’s big kickoff for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas — doesn’t start, so much as the audience blinks and then it’s happening.
Alternating lines, the cast sets the scene: King Lear of Britain has decided to step down from the throne, and divide his kingdom among his three daughters. But first, they must pass his test, by telling him how much they love him. It’s a classic tale of vanity gone awry, a condemnation of the pretty words that Shakespeare himself made a living crafting.
One of the Lears (Abigail Killeen) sheds her crown to become Goneril, the first daughter. She swears that she loves him “more than word can wield the matter.”
The second daughter, Regan (Jo Mei), agrees with her, “only she comes too short.”
But when it comes time for the third and youngest daughter, Cordelia (Celeste Sena) to speak, she answers simply, “nothing.” Cordelia sees through her sisters’ shallow acts of affection, and knows that true filial love is demonstrated, not spoken. Unfortunately, her father is too self-satisfied to recognize her wisdom, and rejects her, disowning her and causing her to flee to France with her new husband (Tom Nelis).
The production makes good use of the space, as actors pace the aisles, climb up on scaffolding at the side of the stage, and even sit in the seats alongside the audience. The Bard himself once famously said that “all the world’s a stage,” so why not all the theater? When Goneril and Regan make their deceitful declarations of love, they climb up onto the stage, demonstrating the performative nature of their affections. Only Cordelia speaks from the aisles, with no need for pretense or showmanship.
Meanwhile, Lear rejects his nobleman Kent (Paul Pryce) for accusing the two daughters of conspiring against the King (his loyalty untarnished, he returns in disguise). Another faithful friend, the Duke of Gloucester (Micheal Potts) must deal with his own scheming offspring: his bastard son Edmund (Elijah Martinez) convinces him that the legitimate son, Edgar (Brandon Burton), is plotting against him.
Edmund is particularly delightful to watch, turning from somber and faux-honest to devilishly gleeful at the drop of a hat. His two-toned performance highlights the fact that he is acting — almost every character is acting, in a clever meta twist — and King Lear is really just a bunch of people pretending to be people they are not, who are also pretending to be people they are not.
The master of enticingly well-turned phrases warns his audience about the danger of a well-turned phrase, and the glitter of fool’s gold that is just as far from the real thing as the paper crowns are from a true mark of royalty. In the end, the heroes of the play are the ones who can “deliver a plain message bluntly,” like Kent, or Cordelia herself, or even the King’s trusty fool (Lukas Papenfusscline). Sometimes, the truth doesn’t need to be dressed up.
The word “nothing” is of particular significance in King Lear. Cordelia says “nothing” about her love for her father, Lear himself attests that “nothing can be made out of nothing”; the fool cautions him in turn, “I am a fool, thou art nothing.” It signifies the deep insecurity at the heart of Lear’s downfall: he needs to be praised to feel like he is loved. It’s as universally relatable as it is tragic.
As Lear becomes increasingly unsure of his own identity, because the flattery that he had used to harness his perception of himself proves to be false, the multiple actors portraying him begin to speak over each other, sometimes in unison and sometimes not. It’s a brilliant representation of the personality fragmentation he endures, having relied on others’ opinions of himself to build his own self-image.
As Lear descends into madness, chaos ensues from all sides. The company demonstrates this unraveling through clever blocking and use of space. What began among the audience migrates onto the stage, this time because the performances have been stripped away, and the characters are acting as their true selves. The play is a buffet for the senses, full of dramatic lighting, sound effects, and tableaux that remind the audience that this is all just as made up as Goneril and Regan’s love for their father. But at the same time, there’s something deeply true about all of it. If all the world’s a stage, then the play itself becomes reality.
King Lear is about the danger of buying into flattery, but it’s also about the very human desire to believe that the people around you love you. Lear bets his kingdom on the wrong horses, but in the end, the person who really loved him didn’t need to say so; she just needed to show it. And Compagnia de’ Colombari does just that: they show the audience a deep look into their own psyches, and a few hard truths about how to trust people and why. Most important, though, they show them an all-around good time.
The International Festival of Arts and Ideas continues through June 29. Visit the festival’s calendar for information on all upcoming events.