No one trims the Bard down to basics better than director-of-all-trades Denise Devin, and with Robert A. Prior editing and adapting Shakespeare’s mammoth text in addition to delivering a masterful star turn in the title role, Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group’s 90-minute King Lear packs a powerful punch whenever His Royal Majesty is center stage.

Devin and company get things started with a bang as the King’s conniving older daughters Goneril (Sasha Ilford) and Regan (April Sigman-Marx), backed by their equally underhanded spouses Albany (Christopher Shonafelt) and Cornwall (Anthony Feole), give Daddy Dearest the pair “I love you more than …” speeches he wants to hear.

 Youngest daughter Cordelia (Carlita Peñaherrera), on the other hand, loves her father too much to respond with mere flattery, and so gets herself disowned and shipped off to be wed to the King Of France (Luc Rosenthal) minus Pop’s blessing.

 Meanwhile, the Earl Of Gloucester (Paul Carpenter) has family problems of his own as bastard son Edmund (Saint Ranson) deludes Dad into believing his legit offspring Edgar (Christian Sullivan) is out to murder him.

Soon you’ve got Lear gone bonkers on the heath with his Fool (Peñaherrera) and loyal noble Kent (Tom Trudgeon) by his side, and Edgar wandering the mead stripped down to a loincloth pretending to be berserk himself as “Poor Tom.”

 It doesn’t take long for characters to be stabbed, pierced by sword blade, blinded, poisoned, and otherwise done to death, and since director Devin and Prior are brilliant at brevity, all of this takes place in about half the time a full-length Lear would last.

(One of Devin’s trademark tricks is in having one bunch of characters enter the very second another exits through side-by-side doors, and since there are no set pieces to be moved about on ZJU’s pitch-black black box stage, scene changes could not take place more lickety-split.)

Though I’d love to see what Devin could accomplish with a cast entirely made up of master Shakespeareans, even with only a handful of standouts in an uneven cast, her King Lear merits a look-see.

 Towering above all others is veteran director-designer Prior’s commanding performance as Lear, taking the easily deluded and soon delusional monarch from initial arrogance and blindness to his older daughters’ duplicity to insanity without missing a beat.

Best among supporting players are two who get the added benefit of playing dual roles and one whose character shows two different faces to the world.

Peñaherrera reveals daughterly depth and a natural facility for Shakespearean language as Cordelia, then vanishes into the Fool’s wacky standup-comic skin before returning as Lear’s youngest daughter to heartbreaking effect.

 Sullivan’s Edgar starts out the decent, handsome, quietly charming son any King would hope to have before stripping down to near nothing but lean muscles and grime, donning a Cockney accent, and impersonating “Crazy Tom” quite niftily indeed.

As for Edmund, Ransom does a terrific job of showing Gloucester’s illegitimate son’s softer, gentler side in addition to the rage at being the bastard offspring of royalty that propels him towards heartless manipulation of those around him.

Completing King Lear’s multitasking thirteen-member cast are Gilbert Roy DeLeon (Burgundy, Doctor) and Ryan Lisman (Oswald).

 A virtual one-woman-behind-the-scenes-show, King Lear is not only directed by Devin, she has designed the production’s lighting and co-designed its costumes and props (with Prior and cast) and its sound (with Bill Meyer), and choreographed its multiple fight sequences including some rousing swordplay. Oh, and she’s credited as sound tech guru as well.

Indeed, the only design credit Devin does not receive or share is for Meyer’s original sound effects.

Admittedly, because this is Zombie Joe’s, design elements are kept at a bare minimum, but audience regulars know just what to expect, and that includes plenty of stage blood as King Lear nears its violent end.

King Lear is produced by Zombie Joe. Ellen Bienenfeld is assistant to the director. Alex Schetter is ZJU sound advisor.

Having sat through enough three-hour6-long Lears to last this reviewer a lifetime, only the promise of ninety-minutes, no intermission could have gotten me back for more. Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group’s King Lear is Shakespeare minus all the extra words, and for that alone it is worth a look-see.

Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.
www.ZombieJoes.com

–Steven Stanley
December 2, 2018
Photos: Denise Devin

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, William Shakespeare, Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group