King Lear

Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Loft Ensemble
Through August 14

Lear is one of those roles used to chart an actor’s path in life: the young actor is Romeo, a bit later is Hamlet, and the older actor essays Prospero and Lear. The estimable Leon Russom is fully up to the challenge of the fallen king, transitioning from impotent rage to fiery madness and finally to acceptance and grief. Unfortunately, the Loft Ensemble’s production of King Lear that supports him is somewhat uneven, but there is enough artistic quality there to merit a visit.

The elderly Lear (Russom) has decided to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, Goneril (Lacy Altwine), Regan (JoAnn Mendelson) and Cordelia (Marissa Galloway). The first two daughters flatter him, but the one who loves him the most, Cordelia, speaks simply and in doing so enrages the vain king. Going against the advice of his loyal follower Kent (Bruno Oliver), he disowns Cordelia and ultimately Kent as well. This is a mistake, because Goneril and Regan turn on him, driving him into madness as his Fool (Leon Mayne) and friend Gloucester (Mark Bramhall) look on in helpless pity.

Russom emphasizes the anger and madness of Lear in his performance to strong effect, with his resonant voice lashing out in the “O you unnatural hags” speech and pronouncing with steely finality the “Better you had never been born…” line to a horrified Cordelia. Yet he also captures the epiphanic moment Lear realizes the plight of the poor, and is beautifully moving in his penultimate scene with Cordelia as he posits a peaceful life with her. It’s a wonderful, multilayered, memorable performance.

Bramhall delivers a vivid, thoroughly realized Gloucester, and Oliver brings out the rough nobility in Kent. Galloway offers a refreshing sweetness as Cordelia, laughing at her father’s request for compliments until she realizes too late the seriousness of his vanity. Altwine is properly shrewish as Goneril, and Mendelson is striking as a seductive (green-haired!) Regan. Mayne fares less well as the Fool, speaking so low or rushed that a lot of his lines and jokes are lost.

As Gloucester’s bastard son Edmund, Tor Jensen Brown does a couple of odd things. Firstly, he spends the entire time with a bashful smile on his face, as if to say, “Oh, you caught me doing something bad,” which is an unusual expression for a dissembler to adopt. Stranger still, he delivers all of his asides to the roof, as if talking to himself and not the audience, which seems a misunderstanding of the purpose of asides. Mike Mahaffey as Gloucester’s other son, Edgar, also makes some weird choices, such as initially playing the role in broad comic mode, and later putting on a cornpone American country accent, which is particularly glaring considering the era and country wherein the play is set.

Director Bree Pavey gets credit for shepherding the many excellent performances and for cleverly staging the storm sequence, in which three masked women wave glimmery sheets of fabric around Lear to simulate the wind. The women are also the daughters of Lear, which adds in a nice symbolic texture. However, she also is responsible for a discordant use of disco-sounding music in a fight scene between Goneril and her husband and for not reining in some of her cast’s more eccentric excesses. Linda Muggeridge’s costumes are splendid and plentiful in number, and the lighting design by Matt Richter and Andrew Schmadke provides brilliant support.

Although this is not a perfect show, there is much that is good about it, and Mr. Russom’s Lear is worth seeking out and appreciating. 

Loft Ensemble, 13442 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m.; through Aug. 14. www.loftensemble.com. Running time: two hours and 45 minutes with a 15 minute intermission.