Bare Theatre Review

By Robert W. McDowell
Youth-Theater Production Of “King Lear” Plays Aug. 3-5 at Holly Springs Cultural Center

Bare Theatre’s Rogue Company’s exuberant if uneven youth-theater presentation of English dramatist William Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy King Lear, first performed by July 26-28 at Common Ground Theatre in Durham, NC, will resume its split run on Aug. 3-5 at Holly Springs Cultural Center in Holly Springs. The youthful cast members, aged 13-20, and four of adult guest artists bring more passion than polish to their roles in this familiar tale of a foolish old king of Britain who decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, with the daughter who flatters him most getting the biggest portion.

Although decades too young to do Lear full justice, Alex Davis garners considerable sympathy for the temperamental monarch who is the prideful architect of his own destruction. Guest artists Heather J. Hackford as Earl of Kent, whom Lear banishes on pain of death for resisting his precipitous plan to divide his realm, and Matt Schedler as Earl of Gloucester, who remains the king’s loyal retainer even after he and his legitimate son Edgar (Austin Kriger) are betrayed by his bastard son Edmund (Sam Mohar).

Hackford gives the loyal Kent the cunning of a fox and the heart of a lion, and Schedler is good as the far-too-easy-to-deceive Gloucester. Kriger makes an excellent impression as Edgar, who must feign madness to survive; and Mohar gives Edmund a sinister, grasping soul beneath a handsome exterior that makes him catnip to Goneril (Sloan Thompson) and Regan (guest artist Rebecca Blum). Thompson and Blum portray Goneril and Regan as a pair of beautiful but treacherous alley cats who pretend to be doting daughters but bare their claws and fangs as soon as their foolish father turns over the choicest portions of his lands to them.

Kelsey Heathcoat cannot quite bring out all the poignancy in Cordelia’s plight as Lear’s only truth-speaking daughter whom the irate king exiles for her frankness; but Tara Pozo gives an impish impersonation of the Fool and Brent Rappaport as Duke of Albany and Jeff Buckner as Duke of Cornwall provide strong support.

Bare Theatre artistic director Carmen-maria Mandley stages this no-frills production with great gusto, coaxing heartfelt if sometimes rough performances from her youthful players. Costume designers Jeremy Clos and Jennifer Aiello do an outstanding job of clothing the characters in colorful garments in the style of the Roman occupation, and lighting designer Andy Parks skillfully illuminates the fast-paced action in this visceral tragedy whose goriest moments rival those of Titus Andronicus.

Bare Theatre’s Rogue Company presents King Lear Friday-Saturday, Aug. 3-4, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 5, at 2 p.m. at Holly Springs Cultural Center, 128 S. Main St., Holly Springs, North Carolina. $15 ($7 students, seniors, and active-duty military personnel). 919/567-4000 or etix. BARE THEATRE: http://www.baretheatre.org/next.html. SHAKESPEARE RESOURCES (e-text courtesy University of Virginia): http://etext.virginia.edu/shakespeare/. King Lear (e-text courtesy UVa): http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ShaKLF.html (1623 First Folio) and http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/MobLear.html (1866 Globe Edition). HOLLY SPRINGS CULTURAL CENTER: http://www.hollyspringsnc.us/dept/park/culture/.