This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
Vernal & Sere Theatre’s production of “Lear” by Young Jean Lee contains visually stunning design, some truly absurd laughs, an energetic cast and a devastating theme of family grief at its center. Those who like their theater challenging and bizarre should find their way to the Windmill Arts Center, where the show runs until April 30.
You won’t see anything like this anywhere else, unless David Lynch starts doing educational programming for PBS or someone discovers the late, great director Franco Zeffirelli’s lost Shakespearean snuff film.
It’s worth seeing for the wild set alone, designed by directors Erin Boswell and Erin O’Connor. With a floor designed like a chessboard, a long white staircase, a sheer curtain that reflects projected images and an oversized throne, it feels like you’ve walked into a 1980s music video — maybe Tom Petty’s version of Wonderland in “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”
“Lear” begins with that busy stage. In the background behind the curtain, an old man (Alex Van) in a hospital robe, hooked up to an IV and struggling for breath, watches game shows on TV. In the foreground, Regan (Daniela Santiago), the most violent princess from Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” awaits the return of her siblings to the castle. A storm rages outside.
When her sisters Goneril (Laura Edwards) and Cordelia (Jessica Craig) arrive with brothers-in-law Edgar (Kellen Boyle) and Edmund (Pascal Portney), they argue themselves in circles over distorted plot points from Shakespeare’s tragedy, unsure of whether their fathers Lear and Gloucester have died in the storm. They squabble over who’s to blame, which of them is a good person, what should happen next, who should take charge and how to resolve petty arguments from childhood.
The costumes and acting styles in this part of the play are intentionally exaggerated and played to the hilt. The fights are full of noise, but the characters are merely trying to pretend like they’re in control, even though they’re really just scared that their world is changing beyond their control. What else can they do when their dads are dying?
The cast is very strong here. Portney’s physicality and foppishness as Edmund is hilarious, throwing himself on to the floor against walls in tantrums. Craig and Santiago give very committed, physically challenging performances. As Goneril, Edwards gets many powerful moments, trying to boss her way through an impossible, stressful situation. Their energy begins high but then reaches a fever pitch.
Boyle is terrific throughout the play, particularly when a shift occurs in the narrative that requires a jarring change in acting styles. Suddenly, everyone shifts from histrionic and mannered to sincere and personal. Then, the show shifts styles again in a surprising way, leaving the audience wondering how the show got to where it ends up.
The thing to remember when watching a Vernal & Sere show is that all the pomp, noise, activity and sensory shock is in service of difficult emotional truth. This show, like “Exterminating Angel” and “Hurricane Season” before that, is layered like an onion so that you have to work to uncover the rewarding, important thing it’s trying to tell you.
Sawyer Estes, who wrote the scripts for the other two Vernal & Sere shows, provides dramaturgy here, assuring this interpretation of Lee’s script has the strange, immersive and vulnerable feel of the troupe’s productions.
“Lear” isn’t an easy show. It rarely slows down. Its message isn’t always clear, though it is often ridiculously fun. And it pays off dividends at its emotional climax.
When we face losing our parents as the characters do here, no matter how much hell we raise or petty fights we cause, the notion turns us all into lost children, trying to learn how to get through the rest of our lives untethered from the people who used to anchor us.
THEATER REVIEW
“Lear”
Through April 30. $15-$60. The Windmill Arts Center, 2823 Church St., East Point. vernalandseretheatre.com.
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Benjamin Carr, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is an arts journalist and critic who has contributed to ArtsATL since 2019. His plays have been produced at The Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan, as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. His novel Impacted was published by The Story Plant in 2021.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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