‘King Lear’ on Mt. Airy stage; an unforgettable version

Posted 3/27/19

D. J. Gleason is The Fool, and Robert Jason Jackson is King Lear in the Quintessence version of the legendary Shakespeare tragedy. by Hugh Hunter Trying to stage the sprawling grandeur of King Lear …

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‘King Lear’ on Mt. Airy stage; an unforgettable version

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D. J. Gleason is The Fool, and Robert Jason Jackson is King Lear in the Quintessence version of the legendary Shakespeare tragedy.

by Hugh Hunter

Trying to stage the sprawling grandeur of King Lear is its own “thankless child.” The challenges are numerous, a few irremediable, but the Quintessence production of this seminal tragedy resonates deeply.

Director Alexander Burns stages the opening scene in the theater anteroom. Like royal courtiers, we watch Lear put his daughters Cordelia (Eunice Akinola), Regan (Anita Holland) and Goneril (Donnie Hammond) through a “love test.” The foolish banishment of Cordelia and honest Kent (Gregory Isaac) seals Lear’s fate and throws the kingdom into chaos.

What is wrong with Lear? His “tragic flaw” is more like a medical condition, something akin to early stage dementia. (I take a pass on theories as to Lear’s suppressed incestuous yearning.) Broadway veteran Robert Jason Jackson is superbly imposing, a mix of physical strength and old age fragility in Lear’s wild struggle to stay sane. In staging Lear, Jackson’s triumph is half the battle.

But some other casting decisions are quizzical. Young, slightly built D.J. Gleason plays The Fool. The character’s wit still bites, but Gleason is also playful and nonthreatening. Burns evidently wants to lighten the play, but Lear only becomes more grim when Fool disappears.

And why turn Gloucester into a mother (E. Ashley Izard)? There is no mother in Shakespeare’s script. What purpose is served? It weakens the parallel to Lear — another father’s betrayal and suffering. “Mother” Gloucester also dresses in a man’s suit; these genuflections to trendy gender-bender Shakespeare only make you work harder.

You have to work hard enough. Why, indeed, does Fool run out of the play at midpoint, never to return? Why does self-abasing Edgar delay easing Gloucester’s suffering? (Jake Loewenthal struggles heroically in this thorny role.) How does Edmund (deliciously comical J Hernandez), the perfect Machiavelli, have an out of character, death-bed conversion?

Yet King Lear is too big for quibbles, a gargantuan epic that devours its own shortcomings. In all theater, no scene is more momentous than Lear in the raging storm. Light (Ellen Moore) and sound (Alex Burns) are both understated and dramatic. Especially here, Lear grows through suffering, learning of his shared humanity with outcasts and the common man.

The glorious storm scene does double duty as Shakespeare’s “world out of joint,” because Lear abandons Divine Right when he splits his kingdom among heirs. The production captures the essence of King Lear: With the destruction of the ordained order, anything goes; in the spirit of morality play, a wild struggle ensues between definably good and evil characters.

We return to the anteroom, a ringside seat for the exciting swordplay finale between Edgar and Edmund (fight director, Ian Rose). In this grim play, does the victory of the few “good” people still standing give you hope for the future? I know only this: those who take in the Quintessence show will never forget it.

Quintessence Theatre is located at 7137 Germantown Ave. “King Lear” will run through April 20. Tickets at 215-987-4450 or quintessencetheatre.org

arts, mt-airy