Lear Redux: A Quantum Fantasia

I usually am somewhat wary of “new takes” or “twists” on classic plays, with cause. Changing the time period of a story or modernizing the text is no guarantee that the play will be any fresher or successful. Shakespeare, being centuries dead, his works long out of copyright, is without doubt the playwright whose works have been experimented with the most, which I suppose is proof that his words still speak to us. Once in a while, however, this experimentation proves fruitful, providing us with new insight into a venerable text. Such is the case with Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, New American Theatre and Not Man Apart-Physical Theatre Ensemble’s production of Lear Redux: A Quantum Fantasia, which uses the twin lenses of King Lear and dementia to examine each other in brilliantly creative and moving ways.

The Actor (Jack Stehlin) was a famed thespian in his day, but now he is elderly and plagued by dementia. He’s normally watched over by nurses (Ahkei Togun, Andres Velez) and his beloved dog, Cordelia (puppeteered and played by Emily Yetter), but today is his birthday, and his family– his brother (Dennis Gersten) and his two daughters (Jade Sealey, Eve Danzeisen) has arrived to celebrate the day. The Actor wants to celebrate by having everyone perform King Lear with him, or at least that’s how he perceives the situation, until reality and fantasy become hopelessly tangled in his mind.

Stehlin is marvelous as the Actor, fluidly portraying the character’s quicksilver change of emotions, from confusion to joy to rage, sometimes in the same scene. Regardless of what is actually real, it’s all real to the Actor, and Stehlin keeps the truth of his character’s feelings at the forefront of his performance. Togun and Velez are both terrific as the nurses and Edgar and Edmund, respectively. Sealey and Danzeisen both lend humor and complexity to their roles as Goneril and Regan. Gersten is quite good as the brother and Kent, but it’s his speech about quantum mechanics and the universe at the end of the show that quietly dazzles. Finally, Yetter is amazing as Cordelia, the heart of the play. Her puppeteering of the dog puppet is masterful and charming, and her performance as Lear’s dead daughter provides the most powerful moments in the production.

John Farmanesh-Bocca’s direction succeeds on many fronts, from keeping the dramatic shifts between Shakespeare and this new story clear to getting detailed work from his ensemble. His movement direction is creative and lends the show a lot of energy (a dance scene between Lear and Cordelia is especially lovely), and if I didn’t always understand exactly what some of the movement set pieces meant, they were never less than compelling. Mark Guirguis’ scenic design is clever and fits the psychologically flexible nature of the project (a surprise change of the set into something else was a highlight that made the audience gasp with delight) and Bosco Flanagan’s lighting design made all of the Actor’s internal changes lucidly external.

Farmanesh-Bocca’s adaptation is very perceptive in how it takes Shakespeare’s famed tale of a failing king and uses it as a framework to examine how dementia can affect a person. It also uses the topic of dementia to look at Lear in a new way. It’s a fresh and insightful take on how delirium could cause its subject to take refuge in a story to try and make sense of a world which has become confusing or frightening. There’s also plenty of humor in the script, as when one character tells a computer to put on “monologue music.”

Lear Redux is smart, entertaining and emotionally resonant, a production with high ambitions that it skillfully attains.

Lear Redux: A Quantum Fantasia is presented by Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, New American Theatre and Not Man Apart-Physical Theatre Ensemble at Odyssey Theatre and plays through July 13. Tickets are available at https://odysseytheatre.com/whats-on/lear-redux/.