Playwright: William Shakespeare,
At: Vitalist Theatre of Chicago at the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.,
Phone: (773) 327-5252; $22,
Runs through: Oct. 24
Playgoers of academic inclination can peruse director Elizabeth Carlin Metz' Jungian analysis of her text in the playbill, hearkening to her footnotes crediting the numerous other artists influential in her production concept. Missing from the list, however, is Jackie Collins—an inexplicable omission when one considers that the modern descendent of this most Jacobean of Shakespeare's tragedies is the genre encompassing the Dynasty/Dallas/ Knots Landing trilogy. Metz' goals might be lofty, but her choice of the razzle-dazzle 1920s as the setting for this lurid tale of the Rich And Glamorous only serves to amplify the sordid motifs employed by the author: adultery, incest, insanity, false identities, double-crosses, stabbings, mutilations, poisonings, suicides—all the shivery sensationalism associated with ruthless family members looking out for their own interests.
The plot revolves around two big-shot daddies: Lear, a swaggering fat-cat who, in a moment of self-indulgence, signs his property over to his butt-kissing elder daughters, disowning the youngest when she refuses to play his game. The Duke of Gloucester likewise places his trust in the word of his duplicitous son, Edmund, rejecting honest son Edgar. Little do these fathers, one wrathful and the other gullible, suspect that retribution for their short-sighted decisions will soon be vested not only on them, but on those they hold dear.
Patriarchal authority so inhumane as to necessitate its equally cruel overthrow is an ugly proposition. Lear's practice of flying into a rage when thwarted is mirrored in the behavior of his subjects, few of whom can be called charitable toward their fellow creatures. The amusement of dialogue almost wholly consisting of people vilifying one another being limited, when the time comes for Reason to assert itself over Emotion, we are thankful for the inclusion in the cast of such verbally adroit players as Don Bender, playing the remorseful Lear, Vincent L. Lonergan as the doomed Gloucester, Jamie Vann and Rom Barkhordar (speaking in his own accents for a change) as their loyal champions, Kent and Edgar. Also providing welcome respite from the seemingly endless bicker-and-backbite is the Florida-sized hurricane created onstage by designers Craig Choma and Joseph Fosco.