For its seventh “silent Shakespeare,” Synetic Theater leans a bit toward levity, but not by doing a comedy. Instead, for this production at the Lansburgh Theatre, adapters Paata Tsikurishvili and Ben Cunis are looking at “King Lear” through the lens of absurdity. With his uncanny ability to maximize the subtext as he minimizes the text, director Tsikurishvili succeeds at giving this epic story a periodic lightness of tone without diminishing the horrendous core story of Lear, a foolish king who can’t recognize truth from falsehood until it is too late.
| Onstage |
| ‘King Lear’ |
| Where: Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW |
| When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through April 24 |
| Info: $40 to $55; 202-547-1122; synetictheater.org |
Irakli Kavsadze is impressive as Lear, a great, swaggering, slightly buffoonish figure, convinced that his daughters and son love him equally. Yet those daughters, Goneril (Ira Koval), and Regan (Irina Tsikurishvili), are jealous of one another. In a highlight of the show, the sisters undertake an energetic dance-off, each one trying to convince Lear that she loves him the most.
Most of the story is true to Shakespeare’s original, although Lear’s youngest child has been changed from Cordelia to Cordelio (Chris Dinolfo) and is banished from Lear’s kingdom when Goneril and Regan expose his homosexuality.
As Gloucester, Hector Reynoso is impressive, as is Philip Fletcher in the role of Gloucester’s son Edmund. The role of Edgar, Gloucester’s good son, is entrusted to Cunis, who does some sensational parkour wall-walking. Peter Pereyra plays Kent, Lear’s trusted adviser, with strength and conviction. The Fool, dressed as Pierrot in white tunic and pants, is portrayed with gentle grace by Mirenka Cechova.
This “Lear” happens in an unspecified place, near “the remnants of an unknown disaster.” Two great set pieces at the rear of the stage appear to be blown-out buildings left over from a war. The stage is covered with sand. At the beginning of the play, multicolored balloons are anchored in the sand, setting the stage for the festival associated with the division of Lear’s kingdom.
Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili’s costumes are vague representations of countries and ranks, except for the vicious Edmund, whose red and black costume identifies him immediately as a devil. Konstantine Lortkipanidze’s original composition starts out with light calliope music but follows Lear’s descent into madness with crashing synthesizer sounds. Cunis’ fight choreography creates a stunning display for an army of ninja warriors.
At the end of the play, Lear holds Cordelio’s dead body, corpses litter the stage and the figure of Death (Renata Loman) stands nearby. As the Fool distributes balloons to each figure lying in the sand and they appear to float up out of the dead zone on Earth, it is apparent that Tsikurishvili has achieved what he intended: a comment on man’s determined inability to see the truth and to avoid disaster, a true “tragic farce.”
