Lear Redux (review)

 

Spoilers ahoy! 

Years ago, I saw a production called Tempest Redux at this very theatre, from the same company and with several of the same cast members.  "Awesome" frankly remains the word by which I most recall that show.

So imagine my excitement at the thought of Lear Redux!  The thing I perhaps most expected, paradoxically, was to be surprised.  Boy was I ever startled, shocked, moved, and yes very definitely surprised on every level!  In the most powerful, moving way!

A few seconds after walking into the theatre, the set told me much.  A very large, comfortable bedroom, with lot of medicines and even an IV set up next to double bed.  Above a fireplace (!) was a full color portrait/poster with one word:  HAMLET.  So I knew this was the bedroom of an elderly Shakespearean actor, and I guessed he was suffering from some kind of dream and/or dementia, blending his memories and perceptions with (arguably) Shakespeare's greatest tragedy.

While I was mostly right, the rabbit hole writer director John Farmanesh-Bocca composed with this amazing cast went far deeper, far more transcendent than anything I suspected going in.  Yes, King Lear.  But also, yes also The Singing Detective, Alice Through the Looking Glass, and a solid sprinkling of the Bagadvagita.  At times it almost felt as if my brain exploded by the end of those ninety five minutes in front of that stage!

Jack Stehlin plays the elderly Actor as well as Lear.  To put it mildly there are parallels between the former and latter, not least having  three daughters with the same names--Goneril (Jade Sealey), Regan (Eve Danzeisen), and the late Cordelia (Emily Yetter).  That he now has a dog named Cordelia, played in puppet from by the same actor, hints at some of the drama yet to come.  The actor's ever loyal, enabling brother (Dennis Gersten) ends up doubling for Kent from the play, while his two nurses (Ahkei Togun, Andres Valez) do time as Edgar and Edmund respectively--although I'd argue the former also is The Fool. 

Now, to be sure this is not really Shakespeare's play.  Yet it comes close to being the best version of King Lear I've ever seen (a brutally difficult script to perform) anyway!  The re-imagining of it all through the guilt and hallucinations of this deteriorating great actor strikes a chord of increasingly profound insight, which is increasingly also distorted!  Eventually, amid the storm, things take a wild Left Turn, exploring the inner dreamscape of the Actor, but also beyond.  In an echo of Gloucester's blinding, a new blind character emerges speaking of what quantum physics can teach us about Time and about ourselves.  Here is a prophet of sorts, a guide into the mystical underpinnings of what we see as reality, as the world, as all things that are and yet are not.  My favorite line in the play emerges from this, as Lear says with growing astonishment "...I am the storm...I am my daughters..." which of course is true on several levels.

I was reminded a bit of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, who proclaimed "Hark ye yet again—the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks."  Yet whereas Ahab feels rage at this, longing to strike back at whatever lies beyond, the Actor wearing the identity of Lear steps through it.  He sees, he understands, he weeps and laughs, he grows a hard-won wisdom bitter and sweet beyond human words.  He does not want to go back, and who can blame him?  

Yet the play ends with more than tragedy.  Horrible things happen.  Pain and loss and terror in full measure.  Beyond, however, beyond "this mortal coil" lies more of what the Actor glimpsed on his Shakespearean dream quest.  

The conclusion of the play, enacted by such a very fine ensemble portraying such multi-layered groups of characters, lifted us all outside ourselves for a few moments.  I felt the ground shift underneath my heart.  And when I looked again at the poster, reading the description of "A Quantum Fantasia" I totally got it.

Lear Redux plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm (with Wednesday night shows including post show discussions at 8pm on June 11 and 25) until July 13, 2025 at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90025.

The Dreamer Examines His Pillow 2023 (review)

 Spoilers ahoy!  

I saw a remount of the original production of John Patrick Shanley's The Dreamer Examines His Pillow back in New York when attending the National Shakespeare Conservatory.  That was in the 1980s.  I recall it vividly to this day.

The current production at the Odyssey Theatre is the better production.  It tells an intense, vision-laden tale of a moment of crisis in three people's ultimately entwined lives.  Tommy (James Liddell) is a mess, living in a rancid New York almost-apartment (probably a studio, certainly roach-infested), doing things he doesn't understand and trying to somehow get his life back in control.  He's not a drug addict or anything like that.  But he is, by any definition, a mess.

Enter Donna (Pamela Portnoy), his ex-girlfriend.  We pretty soon figure out their breakup occurred as part of Tommy's spiral.  She has heard he's been seeing her sister!  And he admits he has.  The longer the scene goes the more we realize Tommy's problem is somehow existential in nature, he having little or zero notion why he's acting the way he is.  More, no matter what either one of them says, he and Donna are not in any way over.  Both continue to dream about each other.  Both daydream about touching each other, about feeling the others' skin.

This gets a lot more graphic (and poetic) than my words suggest here.

Donna in particular quietly but deeply freaks out when she sees Tommy has tried to paint a self portrait.  It is terrible (and he admits it).  But...Donna's father is an artist.  

She leaves to talk to her father, with whom she almost never talks.

Her father (we never learn his name but he's played by Eric Larson) is sitting alone, drinking in his big house, having sold almost all his own paintings.  When Donna shows up, he groans.  But...he talks to her.  He answers her questions.  More, when he talks he tells the truth.  Make that The Truth.  As he sees it.  Gloves off.  This in fact may be one of the most vivid facts about this three-character play.  All three tell unpadded, un-masked, unvarnished truth to each other.  Donna bluntly tells Dad the basics of the messed-up basics of what she has with Tommy, but says she can handle all that.  Until...Tommy began to act even a little bit like Dad, and her in turn like her mother.  Her own crap is her responsibility, and she accepts it.  But is it hers?  Or is she simply reliving her mother's life and mistakes?

Revelations follow.  Some really raw and powerful ones, especially about desire and sex, about identity and how people are stupid yet try to be wise, sometimes eventually achieving it in bits and drops.  For the first time, Donna begins to actually know her father, understand him.  It rocks her world.  Just as her questions make him say things about himself he doesn't like but must face.

The final scene is when Dad goes to meet Tommy.  It, like all the others, threads a series of very tiny needles of language about things, real things.  Without being in verse, the whole play is in many ways poetry--heightened language to dive deep into who we really are, what we want, our glories and despairs, the stuff of passion.  All in the mouths of hardbitten, profane New Yorkers sans any sentimentality or much refinement, yet full of blunt nuance.  In particular the cast do the most fundamental thing needed in any play, but especially one where people talk about Truth--they know exactly what they are saying, and say it.  Every word.  That sounds easy, but is not.  Not on stage, nor for that matter off of it.

So massive kudos to the cast, and to director Anne Kathryn Parma (when the entire cast is so good in such a consistent way, that is rarely an accident).  Shanley qualifies as a major American playwright, and this story remains one of the reasons why.  This production did it justice!

The Dreamer Examines His Pillow plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 1 p.m.  until February 26, 2023 at the Odyssey Theatre,  2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025.  It runs approximately 75 minutes without an intermission.  

Tempest Redux (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Tempest Redux is a re-imagining of one of Shakespeare's last plays (many believe Prospero is a stand-in for the Bard himself). For the most part, this re-imagining consists of a careful edit, streamlining the show with considerable skill.  At least that takes up the most time in terms of changes.

But so much more awaits those who see this production.

Allow me to admit (as before) that as an audience member I'm very stingy when it comes to standing ovations.  Many the time, after a very good performance, my applause has been sincere and long, yet my seat remained occupied while others rose.  Just quality alone does not deserve a standing ovation.  My standard for such is when I feel genuinely changed by a performance, when my world is rocked in a way and on so many levels the world itself seems a different place.  Easily can I name really fantastic, wonderful, even trascendent works of theatre for which I did not rise.  Yeah, I'm tough that way.

Photo by Enci Box

For Tempest Redux, I could not help but rise to my feet.  In awe and gratitude, at the same time needing some time to recover from the power of this show.

I'll get to final revelation that felt like a slice into my soul in a little bit, but first -- the production overall.  Shakespeare's plays have the fantastic power of allowing all kinds of styles and methods to tell their tale.  This one, arising from the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and the New American Theatre, startles in many ways.  One is its physicality, including having no less than three actors (Shea Donovan, Briana Price, Emily Yetter) simultaneously portray Ariel, lipsyncing recorded words in a kind of dance with sound and movement and even lights.  Likewise two actor together (Dash Pepin, William Long) were together Caliban, often entwined, sometimes hand-in-hand, or moving in complete unison.  The effect proved dazzling, even magical, and appropriate for the non-human characters.

Photo by Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin

Kudos to the entire cast, actually, up to and including Mimi Davila as a feisty, kind, obedient and unafraid Miranda (just think about trying to convey all of those qualities at the same time).  Charles Hunter Paul likewise proved a refreshingly believable young prince, one capable of seeing in this strange girl all his heart might desire. Arguably these are the two most difficult roles in the play (much like Hero and Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing).  Dennis Gersten likewise did wonders as Antonio, faithless brother to Prospero, as well as the cook Trinculo.  Gildart Jackson shone in his double role as well--a grieving and sincere King Alonso, and as the delightfully supercillious Stephano, drunken butler to His Majesty (and would-be God King to the simple-minded Caliban).

But the star of any Tempest needs must be Prospero (Jack Stehlin), the aging father, exiled Duke, and powerful sorcerer.  Here lies the most startling and vivid performance of all, which frankly took some doing!  But then, this is the part to do it with.  We halfway expect to see Prospero as a version of Gandalf from Lord of the Rings or maybe Dumbledore from Harry Potter.  No.  Here we meet a dying old man, one distracted by his musings and full of sorrows, but also capable of the most tender emotions imaginable.  Indeed, at times he seems overwhelmed by his own heart, while increasingly surprised by events.

Photo by Enci Box

And here we get to the gut-wrenching spoiler.  Outline the next paragraph is you want to learn it.  You might prefer to wait and see the show.

Nothing we see is real, or very nearly nothing.  Prospero's loneliness and tragedy have driven him mad, until at last waking dreams of a sublimely happy ending take form.  I myself suspect Ariel is real, and has faithfully created these illusions for her Master all these years, and as he sets her free at last, harsh reality closes in.  Prospero is wise, and good.  We long for that happy ending this man deserves so very very much -- and in the end he has nothing but his wandering wits, and a tiny skeleton of the daughter who of course did not survive.  "Now all our revels are ended..."

I had the great good fortune to speak with the director/adaptor of this play, John Famanesh-Bocca, and can only say I will eagerly attend any show of his in the future.  Just as I felt honored to meet the cast and tell them individually this was indeed the best version of The Tempest I have ever seen.

Tempest Redux plays at the Odyssey Theatre at 2055 South Sepulveda Boulevard Los Angeles, CA. 90025 until April 10, 2016 Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm. NOTE: THIS SHOW HAD BEEN EXTENDED. 

LA Women's Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark not only remains one of Shakespeare's most famous works, but one of the most challenging. For an almost startling number of reasons! Many go unnoticed unless (like yours truly) one has seen many productions of differing styles and quality.

The Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company just premiered a production. I've never seen a show of theirs before now, sorry to say. Having watched this, I'm even sorrier to have missed earlier shows! A major conceit of this company lies in an all-female cast, with male parts (Edwin Drood-like) played by male impersonators, i.e. women in drag. Not in any campy way, but simply in a reversal of how they did theatre in Shakespeare's day--with men (or boys) playing the women's roles. Some folks react badly to such, whereas to me this counts as a style. Ditto the non-traditional casting, i.e. ignoring ethnicity. Seems to me this production did exactly the right thing in such casting. I've seen plenty of Shakespeare productions do as much, and nearly always it worked when the performance pretty much ignored ethnicity altogether. Audiences accept a lot. If the cast simply does something, most of the time the audience follows suit. After all, people don't speak in iambic pentameter! Neither do they routinely stand in such a way as to be visible to people sitting in one end of every single room!

Okay, enough of pontificating about other performances! How was this one?

Something of mixed bag, but far less mixed than usual! Mostly quite good--and in startling ways! I really want to offer up a lot of praise for Natsuko Ohama who plays Polonius. Not until reading through the program did I realize she's also the co-director of this production. And not until I did a search to find her website did my jaw drop as I realize why she looked familiar! Quite simply, she was a regular on a favorite televisions series, Forever Knight. But more to the point, she is the second best Polonius I've ever seen (the best was Ian Holm). And Polonius is the single most difficult character in a play riddled with traps and difficult characters (an acting coach once insisted to me we don't have the final draft of Hamlet for that very reason). Better than nine times out of ten, Polonius ends up as a comic relief, played as an elderly clown. In this production, Ohama's performance shows exactly why that's a mistake. Suddenly, Ophelia's and Laertes' reaction to his death is shared by the audience! Yes, sometimes Polonius is funny, not least because the man does like to hear himself talk and he's old enough now and then he loses his train of thought. But he himself is not a joke. Polonius is wise, active, capable of admitting a mistake (amazing, that)

and for this among other things commands the respect of virtually every other character in the play! In fact, one can point out the biggest mistake Hamlet makes in the whole story is not trusting Polonius from the very start.

Likewise, Cynthia Beckert's Laertes (the second most difficult part in the play, so say I) makes total sense now, simply because his relationship with Polonius is based not simply familial love but genuine respect and admiration. This is no boy enraged at a personal loss, but that enraged boy who knows (as does everyone) what a very fine and good man has been murdered. Ditto Chastity Dotson as Ophelia! The specificity of her performance completely grabbed my heart as I (rightly or wrongly) came away with a precise idea of what is going on inside Ophelia's tortured soul. Lawrence Olivier famously answered the question "Did Hamlet and Ophelia sleep together?" with the (very funny) "Yes...on tour." But my measurement of Ophelia tends to be whether I know the answer to that question. Or think I do. In this case, the whole story of this young lady's tangled feelings for her brother, her father and her paramour, even for herself, bled out onto the stage.

I can offer lots of other praise for many details in this production, including the high quality sets and costumes, the very cunning expedient of making one of the notoriously difficult-to-distinguish pair Rosencranz and Guildenstern female (including--no small thing--treating the character as female in that milieu), the overall quality of the cast (very high indeed) or even the seemingly minor detail of having people cross themselves correctly (how odd this is

so rare!). But I called this performance 'mixed' and I should justify that.

First, the stage combat didn't work. It looked seriously under-rehearsed, because the essential actions themselves seemed just fine. Above average at least! But the actors (the same two) moved too slowly and with not near enough assurance to look like a real fight.

Second, this production over-used the Ghost. Not much, but putting the Ghost of Hamlet's father into scenes where the playwright did not (however briefly) can be problematical and in this case didn't work.

Both of those seem barely qualifying of critiques, maybe. True enough. I've little to complain about at all. A few moments here and there I thought could use some work. Here however I will come to a subtle but pervasive problem.

Hamlet, as played by Lisa Wolpe (who also co-directed). I find myself wondering if the fact she directed herself had something to do with what I have to say. The rest of the cast did such a splendid job overall! But that creates the wrong impression, as if Wolpe did a poor performance. Not at all! But it did prove an uneven one. Quite startlingly so--because between Hamlet's first and last scenes with the Ghost (on the castle parapet, then in the Queen's chamber) this was a vivid, poignant and in his own way powerful Hamlet. Every actor who takes on this role needs to make it their own. Wolpe made a choice I've never seen before--and kudos for that alone! Her Hamlet is...well...weak. Not a bad person, but less strong than a future king really should be, and he cracks under what is simply Too Much. Too much confusion over his father's death and mother's remarriage. Too much resentment over the same,

coupled with the frustrations over his longing for Ophelia. Finding out there's life after death, that his father was murdered and now suffers in Purgatory, followed by one lie after another from those he cares about (his contemporaries, all--like many young men he simply doesn't look to his elders for wisdom or advice). This Hamlet pretends to be mad, but doesn't have to pretend much. He's suffering from a kind of breakdown, and Wolpe shows us this in ways that touch the heart and involve the mind.

But no so much at the very start. At the very beginning this Hamlet seems a cypher. Mind you, the more Wolpe acts with other members of the cast the better and more powerful her every moment. Which is to say she's better doing scenes than soliliquies. Okay.

More frustrating (but still--anything but bad) is when Hamlet returns from abroad, having escaped a piece of treachery by arranging the legal murder of two (former?) friends then going through a battle at sea. The confusion vanishes. Instead of melancholy, we see a razor-like serenity and focus. He's gone from someone who listens to the Dead in terror and rage to a man contemplated the skull of a beloved childhood companion, asking questions without any fierce demand for answers. Ophelia's death moves him to an outburst, but instead of wallowing he realizes almost immediately he's in the wrong, forthrightly and with minimum drama. "Readiness is all," he says. Here lies the heart of who Hamlet has become. Now, he is ready. Knows it. Proceeds with the end of this tale, eyes open and head up, unafraid and resolute. But where did this change take place? And why? Frankly this seems to me the greatest single challenge of the part. Wolpe doesn't quite answer that question for me. She does the middle Hamlet, the tormented young man bubbling over with passions he doesn't understand, extremely well. Her beginning Hamlet is straightforward, real, uninspired but totally believable. Her end Hamlet, though, lacks the power of her Middle.

Which is a nuance. That I 'complain' about such a nuance actually testifies how good this production is overall. I recommend it highly, and say publically it compares well with some of the very best Hamlets I myself have seen (like Kevin Kline's and David Tenant's), and far exceeds others (Mel Gibson's and Richard Chamberlain's).

The Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark plays through October 27, 2013 at the Odyssey Theatre at 2055 Sepulveda, Los Angeles CA 90025 (310) 477-2055.