"SHAKESPEARE'S LEAR" IS A KILLER

By Chuck Graham,

TucsonStage.com

The fight scenes and the death scenes are the best parts of Michael Fenlason's ambitious interpretation of "King Lear" for Beowulf Alley Theatre Company. In this production (dubbed "Shakespeare's Lear") of the Bard's many-threaded study of trust betrayed by greed and ambition, many of those threads are dropped. But audience members who stick with the three-hour running time will definitely get the point.

Bill Epstein, a professor of English at the University of Arizona, does the English department proud pouring his own soul into one of the greatest plays in English literature. By the final scene, you will feel as wrung out as the actor himself, stretched out across the stage.

Fenlason's concept is to present Lear's descent from proud king to mumbling madman as a story of well -intentioned modern-day betrayal. On a black stage with only two props – a tall-backed black chair and a coffin -sized black box – the director puts all the actors in contemporary clothes to recite their lines.

All members of royalty are dressed in business attire. Mark Klugheit as Gloucester gets to wear a power tie with his suit. The Fool (Jacob Brown) wears a black bowler hat, has a giant sunflower for a boutonniere and flips a cigar around in the manner of Groucho Marx.

But with no sets and props to provide clues as the story goes along, it can be difficult to follow all the machinations as Leer's sweet-talking daughters Goneril (Bree Boyd) and Regan (Amy Loehrs) reveal their truly despicable natures.

Helping keep the action moving are Aaron Guisinger giving a vigorous performance as the mad-ish Edgar. Klugheit's portrayal of Lear's buddy, the loyal Gloucester, gets stronger the more Gloucester's mental state deteriorates.

Much of the jealousy between Goneril and Regan, eventually trapped by their double-dealing with Edmund, doesn't quite come across. There are no battles between the British and French armies, either.

But the violence we do get to see works well. The fight scenes are particularly well staged. 

It is Lear's troubled personality that fills the theater and drives all the emotion.  While the casting is uneven and often ineffective, getting to feel this Shakespearean classic up close and personal through Epstein's suffering is a very different emotion from seeing a more "proper" presentation.

"Shakespeare's Lear," adapted by Michael Fenlason, continues in performances through Nov. 20 at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave., at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $20 in advance, $23 day of performance by phone or at the door. For details and reservations, 882-0555, or visit www .beowulfalley.org