King Lear is sometimes said to be better experienced on the page than in performance. Compagnia de’ Colombari’s production of King Lear, however, proves this to be wrong. By breaking away from the traditional constraints of individual character roles, this production gives us a brilliant insight into the interior of Lear’s mind, a man who must lose everything in order to find himself.
Ten King Lears prowl the auditorium and stage space, each wearing a golden paper crown. We are given the many voices of Lear: a king, a father, an old man, a fool, an insecure leader whose mistakes have cost him his sanity, his life, his home. Moving at a fast-pace with an edited text that finds the true heart of the story, this is an exhilarating performance.
In 1811, the critic Charles Lamb wrote that ‘The greatness of Lear is not in corporal dimension, but in intellectual…it is his mind which is laid bare.’ This production, better than any performance of the play that I have ever seen, manages to show the intellectual, the passions, the fears, the desires – the mind of King Lear laid bare. The audience is swept along in a performance that is funny, moving, clever and haunting. The ten actors, supported by three acting stage hands, perform as King Lear and other leading characters to build an immersive story-telling experience. Elijah Martinez as Edmund is particularly impressive, moving seamlessly from his Lear to the cunning and seductive Edmund. Abigail Killeen and Jo Mei as Goneril and Regan are an excellent pair, and Tony Torn as Oswald is wonderfully comic and expressive.
A true ensemble performance, this is certainly the best production of King Lear I have had the privilege of watching. Catch this short run in NYC before it closes.
Compagnia de’ Colombari
Adaptor and Director: Karin Coonrod
Composer: Frank London
Costume Designer: Oana Botez
Cast includes: Brandon Burton, Abigail Killeen, Elijah Martinez, Jo Mei, Tom Nelis , Lukas Papenfusscline, Michael Potts, Paul Pryce, Celeste Sena, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Tony Torn, Paul Wellington, Peter Gomez, Ariel Mayer
La MaMa ETC (66 East 4th Street, New York)
Running time: 2 hours, no intermission
Showing until July 14