Jim Lowe
Jul 30, 2010
"Unadilla’s largely amateur cast invested so much of themselves that Tuesday’s audience became equally involved."
MARSHFIELD – Community theater is always a risky deal if you are looking for a great performance, but Tuesday’s opening night of Unadilla Theatre’s “King Lear” proved powerful, even exciting. Shakespeare is extremely difficult for professionals, but Unadilla’s largely amateur cast invested so much of themselves that Tuesday’s audience became equally involved. True, nobody would mistake it for a professional performance, but it was a certainly an entertaining and rewarding evening of theater. “King Lear” is a tragedy of vanity. Because Lear’s daughter Cordelia won’t fawn over him, he divides his kingdom between his two older daughters and their spouses, who calculatingly express near-worship of the king. The daughters’ falseness soon becomes evident as Lear becomes their virtual prisoner. A royal bloodbath ensues as Lear attempts to regain his place, but the tragedy ends with hope. As with most Shakespeare, the characters and interaction are realistic, making the story compelling. The poetic language not only adds color as it paints the pictures, it underscores the emotional power of what is going on. In Tuesday’s performance, the language was delivered effectively and naturally for easy comprehension. Much of the credit for the production’s success goes to Don Rowe’s virtuosic and totally natural performance as Lear. Retired as drama professor at Burlington’s Champlain College, Rowe has extensive professional theater credits and he proved the bedrock of the production. But Rowe’s was hardly the only truly convincing performance. Directed by Tom Blachy, a lifelong veteran of Unadilla Theatre and myriad Shakespeare productions and a longtime student of Shakespeare, most of the actors felt natural and convincing in their roles. Russ Brown, in particular, delivered a fully dimensional performance as the loyal Earl of Kent. A delicious pairing in the show was that of the two sons of the doomed Earl of Gloucester. Aaron James was slick and deliciously evil and realistic as the bastard son Edmund, while Ian Young, a senior at Twinfield, convincingly grew from a silly innocent to a full-blooded man as Edgar. The women were also well cast. Susannah Blachly and Janice Gohm Webster were wonderfully nasty as the elder daughters Goneril and Regan, respectively, and it got even more interesting as they fought over Edmund. Conversely, Lauren Patterson was beautifully innocent as the youngest daughter Cordelia. David Klein was terribly funny as the Fool, while Clarke Jordan was appropriately tragic as Gloucester. The nasty sisters’ husbands were effectively played by Vince Rossano as Duke of Albany, and Peter Young as the Duke of Cornwall. Production trappings were absolutely minimal, but the performance was fast-paced, and it offered fine storytelling.