Review of King Lear at Antaeus Company (Deaf West Theatre)

Is this or is this not stolen thunder?

A very fine actor plays King Lear in the first fully-staged Shakespeare production by a long established classical company that this same actor founded. Then, through a quirk of something or other (scheduling? Fate? Policy?) a whole lot of ink is spilled over the fact that there are no less than three Southland Lears cursing daughters, rending garments and otherwise going bonkers at the same time.

Well, not exactly at the same time. Through its double casting, The Antaeus Theatre Company is employing two of the Lears: Dakin Matthews and Harry Groener, each of whom leads an entirely different company of “King Lear” on alternating nights for director Bart DeLorenzo. Down in San Diego, meanwhile, Robert Foxworth is playing Lear with the Old Globe Theatre’s summer repertory for director Adrian Noble. Foxworth’s not going every night either, since the Globe repertory is split between three plays and offers no matinee performances.

Intending no disrespect to either Mr. Foxworth or Mr. Groner, both of whom I have seen in many productions both Bard and non Bard, but the Matthews Lear was the one that should have had people marking calendars. If you have to ask why this is the case, then you’ve never seen the man act before.

Dakin Matthews is one of the finest performers to regularly grace southland stages. Period. Bar none. Scholar, company founder, teacher, translator, director and _ above all _ actor, this individual is every bit a gift to the classical stage, and he knows Shakespeare like few others. Between the productions that he has directed, adapted, dramaturged or performed in, there can’t be very many Shakespeare plays that he hasn’t essayed in some form. Yes, he has played Lear before, recently in Pittsburgh, but the news that Matthews would scale this particular summit in front of an L.A. audience _ and for the very company that he founded 19 years ago _ was as exciting as it was fitting.

Finally the Matthews “Lear” has arrived on the tiny but surprisingly adaptable Deaf West Theatre stage, and, guess what! it’s superb.

Director DeLorenzo doesn’t play things crafty or off the wall herel. There’s no great period dependency or political statement being made; no great interpretive leaps or departures. Almost without exception, the players fit seamlessly within the near perfect universe that Shakespeare created for them. Through these actors’ efforts, we once again understand that daughters can be pure of heart…or rotten. Sons can be ambitious, misunderstood or treacherous and trusted servants can be loyal. And how wrong things can go when families _ especially royal ones _ break down all at once. Or perhaps, that’s just the wheel of fate spinning its random course.

Our first glimpse of the King, in that momentous kingdom-splitting opening scene, is a dodge. A herald of trumpets, all rise, and in walks…the Fool (played by Stephen Caffrey) cavorting with Lear’s crown and taking a seat on his monarch’s throne. When a giggly Lear _ the Fool amuses _ arrives a few beats later, he’s got the Fool’s coxcomb (a bit of foreshadowing there). The men exchange headgear, and then it’s down to business.

The quickest tell on how far dotty old Lear will have to travel to the later madness can sometimes be revealed in his challenge to his daughters: who loves Daddy most? And indeed, Goneril (Kirsten Potter), Regan (Francia DiMase) and Cordelia (Rebecca Mozo) all seem slightly taken aback by their father’s question. Goneril and Regan aren’t smooth on the uptake, and both are visibly peeved when it looks like Daddy has given them small pieces of the kingdom. As for the “dragon and his wrath,” Matthews is childishly irked at Cordelia’s silence (he kicks the map) and at Kent’s (Morlan Higgins’s) defiance, but he’ll save his hell and brimstone rage for the storm. This Lear is a contemplator, albeit one who has perhaps thought things through and made the wrong choice anyway.

The scene between Lear and his Fool, en route to Regan, after Goneril’s betrayal, takes place in quiet darkness with Matthews trying to figure out how things went sour and Caffrey’s being too good at his truth-telling job to offer comfort. It’s a beautiful and contemplative scene, one of but many that should get audiences squarely in the gut. As circumstances worsen for Lear, Matthews takes to pounding at his forehead as the dementia sets in. It seems we’re in for a race to see which part of Lear will crack first: his heart or his mind.

Within the Gloucester household, Roman de Ocampo’s Edgar seems to have inherited the senior Gloucester’s (Norman Snow’s) mooniness. Not so, the bastard Edmund (Seamus Dever), a dark and dashing soul who is given dark shadowy lighting (courtesy of Lap Chi Chu) whenever he has to deliver a villainous speech of any length. Though he speaks the words convincingly, Dever’s Edmund seems to embrace his villainy with less relish than Edmunds are wont to do, but there doesn’t’ seem much regret over his treatment of Edgar or Gloucester either.

With Matthews’s Lear a good deal round the bend by the time the cast out monarch reaches the heath, the scenes between Lear, his Fool and Edgar disguised as Poor Tom have the requisite amount of absurdity and do not _ thankfully _ overstay their welcome. It’s a quick hop from here to the betrayal and blinding of Gloucester, a scene which also permits us to witness the ultimate fate of the Fool (as you can imagine, it ain’t cheery.)

One forgets how much can be accomplished in that comfy little stage (Deaf West’s “Big River” started here). Under Tom Buderwitz’s functional design, a pair of rotating barriers that look a bit like ice walls are tilted or maneuvered. The lone trace of color, apart from Lear’s costume in the opening scene, is a gash of red sliced, like a wound, across the back wall revealed in the second half. By now, the blood is indeed starting to flow.

Matthews, as I have said, is a pro. In his hands, Lear is maddening, pitiable, humorous, occasionally terrifying and never anything less than arresting to watch. In his hands, Lear’s words _ to say nothing of his emotions _ make sense. The cast follows his able lead, and the production feels like the event that it is, even in a theater with less than 50 seats. This “King Lear,” as previously noted, is double cast, meaning a different set of players (the Madmen cast) surround Harry Groener. Antaeus attracts solid actors and there are some verywell known and intriguing names among the cast I did not see.

But I saw Dakin Matthews in the title role. Discerning theater goers should certainly do likewise.

“King Lear” plays 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through Aug. 8 at 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. $30-$34 (818) 506-1983, www.Antaeus.org.