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 Slippery Knot (review)

 Spoilers Ahoy! 

This marks (I think) the fourth production I've had the pleasure of seeing from Ballview Productions. 

The Slippery Knot by David Dickens and directed by Brandon Slezak is described in their press release as an "absurdist Dickensian dark comedy" which is accurate, and rarely I will urge you to pay attention to those adjectives.  All apply most acutely.

Let me be brutally frank--this play is hard to initially get "into."  The opening scenes are very busy and frantic, also so fast with characters speaking such odd things one has trouble following.  

Mind you, the scale (especially in cast size) and weird background make up a lot of the show's charm.  Dickensian, yes, but also a bit of Dr. Seus plus Lewis Carroll, soaked in absinthe and sprinkled with J.M.Barrie.  We never really get explanation of how Lord Montsume (Ian Michaels) ended up having to live/dwell in his School for Demeaning Boys, where his viciously loyal Colonel (Talin Vartanian) routinely degrades and punishes a band of children who've evidently never known anything else (or maybe have forgotten--evidently this place has been in operation for centuries).  Our entire story is a flashback, though.  One Robert Gardener (David Dickens) is missing and his wife Martha (Megan Colburn) has seemingly hired or at least become allied with The Inspector (Ayanda Dube) to find him, looking up the retired Mr. Skeams (Jay Rumor) to help figure out what they can.

It all goes back to when Robert was a demeaning boy named Speedy Gardener (Lauren Adlhoch) along with other boys/prisoners such as Pip (Fatima Camacho) and Poor Nicholas (Alex Rhind).

NOTE:  I am not at all sure I've got all the names right, simply because the cast of characters was so large.  Yet it is easy enough to recall the major characters.

When the once-in-a-century visit to the school of a circus occurs, a complex plot emerges to let Speedy escape.  Much of this depends upon the so-called wild girl Mental Martha (Natalia Ortega) who will one day grow up to be Martha Gardener.  Seems the Circus' Magician (Jayden Jack) vows revenge on his wife (Libby Rose) who is having an affair with Lord Montsume.  Urged by Mr. Skeams, he uses a magic door to free/hide young Speedy in what seems to be a pocket dimension or realm of some kind.  Other people are trapped there, most of them totally mad.  Once released, they go rampant.  Aided by the Circus' former owner Mr. Whistle (Alec Schiff) Mental Martha and Speedy steal the train which brought it to this location, along with the Emptiness Clown (Isaac Tipton-Snyder) and a former prisoner of the Circus called Mr. Plank (Max Zumstein).

The Lord and the Colonel are soon in pursuit, sparking a quest/chase in which some really odd aspects of life take weird shape.  I don't want to spoil the thought-provoking details, but the two act fever/opium dream really does embody what I sometimes like to call Theatre of Dreams.  Not so much a plot or story, really, as a dream mounted on stage, full of powerful images and meanings it will take time to digest and decide for yourself what it all might mean.

The Slippery Knot plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8:30 pm, Sundays at 4pm until April 30, 2023 at the Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center, 11006 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91601.

Nightmares Trio (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Nightmares Trio, the four-performance show at ZJU, has its origins in last year's show Nightmares. Like that show, it pretty much epitomizes what I've come to call "Theatre of Dreams."

Intuitive in the extreme, with sudden changes of mood, a blending of elements that should not work yet somehow do, Gloria Galvan, Brett Gustafson and Jessica Weiner join musician/composer Christopher Reiner (what--you didn't expect a show explicitly called trio to have only three performers did you?) create something nonsensical yet in some weird way totally logical.

So we go from a blend of poetry and dance to comedy skits--costume changes that look like something children would put together (pretty sure that was deliberate--if not, then bravo on the serendipity), musical numbers that end up breaking the fourth wall (one of which sure to earn guffaws from regulars at ZJU), and the like.

It is really hard to describe though.

Gloria Galvan is a seemingly fearless performer I've seen time and again now, with an ever-increasing range. Apart from the fact she can be utterly hilarious, her range includes a ferocious power.  At one point in the show I actually thought to myself "Her eyes alone make me believe she rip open and eat my flesh--and part of me just might want her to!"

Brett Gustafson is a tall skinny glass of water with a real edge, as well as (for me very much a selling point in an actor) genuine command of his voice.  He, like the rest, literally keeps changing character on a dime and often with a collection of tiny changes in voice and posture and attitude that adds up to someone vividly new.  We know when he does this, and he never slips into a previous or future character!

Jessica Weiner looks like she should be a cheerleader.  Blond hair, big smile, just the right kind of figure.  Until you look closer at that smile and those eyes, seeing a just a hint of madness she takes out to play with sometimes, the depths (and heights) she's willing to go that many an ingenue balks before.  Tiny detail--of the three she's the strongest dancer.

I"ve seen Christopher Reiner before in The Raven, a show I really loved.  He's better in this one, not least because he's given much more to do, among other things showing a fine comedic timing in terms of acting (not quite the same thing as telling a joke--and vital in this kind of ensemble performance).  Let me note also not only the fine way he performed the music of the show (which he composed) but the fact he played it in sync with the performers!


Only three more performances remaining, and I urge those who want a slightly psychodelic and very imagination-expanding piece of theatre to go take a gander. Fast.


Nightmares Trio runs for Saturdays at 11pm until March 21 at Zombie Joe's Underground Theater Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd. (across the street from KFC), North Hollywood, CA 91601.  For Reservations Call: 818-202-4120, Advance Tix at ZombieJoes.Tix.com.