The Bard's Classic Tragedy Gets the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival Treatment as 'King Lear' Hits the Road

If you want to write a play that will ring true to most people, it’s best to start with a family that can’t get their shit assembled. Dysfunctional families have been the source of countless plays and films, but it’s hard to match the foolish fathers and problematic progeny that Shakespeare uncovers in King Lear.

In this abridged production (just 90 minutes) mounted by the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, all the basics are there but you’d best know the play going in, lest you get buried under an avalanche of foreshortened, colliding storylines.

It all begins with aged King Lear, who decides to ask the question no parent should ever ask his kids at the dinner table: Who loves me most? Two of his daughters, Regan (a properly repulsive Jasmine Renee) and Goneril (a spot-on nasty Hannah Storch) profess their supposed devotion to the old coot. But the third daughter, sweet Cordelia (Ava Spinelli Mastrone), takes a pass by honestly stating that she loves him no more or less than any daughter should.

Um, wrong answer. True to the ancient folk tale from which old Will borrowed the yarn, the King drops Cordelia like a blistering Hot Pocket and awards his other girls equal shares of his kingdom, while Cordelia is banished.

Meanwhile another dad, the Earl of Gloucester (Tim Keo), has problems with his good son Edgar and his illegitimate son Edmund. Edmund gives his dad a fake letter claiming Edgar is plotting to kill him, with the goal of disinheriting his bro. Then Edmund tells Edgar their dad thinks Edgar is planning on patricide, and suggests gullible Edgar hide out as a crazy beggar to avoid the Earl’s wrath.

In this version, the boys have more to work with script-wise than the girls, and Brad Hughes makes the most of Edgar’s faux foray into madness, dashing about and crawling on the ground. And Aaron Warrow turns scheming Edmund into a master manipulator with a wink and a smirk.

But wait, back at the palace the Earl of Gloucester has pissed off the Duke of Cornwall (Cody Swanson), the power-hungry husband of Regan, so Cornwall draws his sword and pokes out Gloucester’s eye. And a minute later Cornwall finishes the job by carving out the Earl’s other eye, waving the excised orb on the point of his dagger and yelling “Out, vile jelly!” (Sorry, Smuckers.)

All the above is performed with admirable energy and invention under the direction of Rachel Gold, who also choreographs some borderline believable swordfights.

Early on in the title role, Allen Branstein doesn’t quite capture the edgy grandeur that gives Lear his riveting power, spending the first scenes acting at peak volume. But as the play progresses, Branstein mellows into the role and finds some poignant moments as he slides through his own bout of real madness.

King Lear is all about things that are perceived versus things that are real, with some characters only finding true insight after they suffer great loss. It’s Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, and while some may find it coming up short, literally and otherwise, it features a handful of riveting moments.

That’s not bad for this traveling show that’s performed outdoors for free—all you have to do is look up their schedule, grab a folding chair, and plop yourself down.

King Lear
Through August 4 at various locations, free of charge.

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This article appears in Jul 17-30, 2024.