Portia’s Casket | Review of PETA’s Haring Lear (King Lear)

I rarely go on opening nights. I have good reason for this. Don’t get me wrong, opening nights are fun, exciting. You get to see everyone involved in the production as well as the theatre’s most avid supporters. For Haring Lear‘s opening night some of the people I recognized were Bienvenido Lumbera (translator and National Artist), Renato “Butch” Santos (Palanca Award winner), the British Council (sponsors), reporters of various network, Nonon Padilla (Director) and the rest of the production staff. Being around theatre-lovers, awaiting the play with a decent spread of cocktails is not a bad way to start a night.

My reservations on opening night comes from having too much excitement in the air. There were too many people, a tad too much noise. I didn’t get to seat on the discreet vip seats because its occupied by the British Council. If I’m just watching a play, I love the seats near the stage, but it is not optimal for photography as it distracts both the actors and the audience. I couldn’t get my camera out. I saw two people photographing the play right in front of me, I could have done the same. But it is not ethical. The noise and the bright lights from their LCD screen is something we could’ve been better without. Also, I notice that on nights like these, a lot more cellphones rang, even after being asked to turn them off. Alas, it was Haring Lear’s opening night.

Right off the bat, I liked the stage. It’s suited to the mood of Lear’s tragedy. The neutral colors and sometimes blinding lights worked well. In tragedies such as Lear, I feel it is best stripped down. The somber stage stays quiet, highlighting the actors’ powerful performance. That is the best part of this play. I was nervous that in an age after Elizabethan drama, they still decided to stage Lear with an all-male cast. Hearing of it, it sounded off. But watching the actors perform was something else. They were powerful. The actors did the material justice. I understood the aesthetic decision of staging Lear with a well-chosen all-male cast, mimicking the Elizabethan form. What we witnessed that night was a strong performance of a Shakespearean tragedy. The cast carried the play on their shoulders.

The magnificence of the performance leaves me confused with some of the adaptation and staging decisions. One particular moment that disappointed me was Lear’s monologue in the storm. It was a key scene. Teroy Guzman’s performance was excellent as he brings to the imagination Lear’s descent into madness. But there was a problem. The audience laughed. I had to stop myself from laughing as well. They made a staging decision of using sprinklers on Lear, to make it appear that he was indeed wandering in a storm. Getting Teroy Guzman wet on stage is as silly as having Jane Horrocks pee for Macbeth, not to mention detrimental to his physical health. It was very distracting. Most of the audience laughed in one of the most painful moments of the play. This is unfortunate as Guzman’s performance, left alone, would have made a much better job of sending Lear’s pain and sorrow to us all. He deserved a better staging.

Another key scene that failed is the finale. Again, the misplaced humor is unnecessary. When they all began to chant “London bridge is falling down”, I was lost. Suddenly, I thought to myself, did I miss reading this in King Lear many years ago? Don’t they all just go to Dover, unravel the story and die? Again, it was a scene that reading alone will make your heart ache. Leaving Lear alive, so as not to go into who becomes King next, Duke of Albany or Edgar is understandable. But I felt robbed as Lear’s sorrow and that of his children were undermined by “London bridge is falling down”. Taking a peek in the Lumbera translation, it was plainly not there. With good reason.

Perhaps the failures has to do with the fact that Haring Lear is the first Filipino adaptation of King Lear. Maybe it is still confusing as to what would work in a Filipino staging of this tragic play. Their aesthetic attempt was a cross between Elizabethan and Noh. I was surprised to see the actors in samurai-esque costume and Noh inspired make-up. But the actors carried it well. As mentioned earlier, their bare performances are the best part. My only wish is that the staging put more stock in the actors’ performance and stop distracting the audience with off-placed humor. More trust should have been given to the cast, as this is among the best-acted play in recent memory.  This play will have a long run, hopefully, some adjustments are not too late for it. It is another night of learning for Philippine theatre.

Haring Lear is a production by the Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA). Haring Lear runs every Fri (7:00PM) Sat-Sun (10:00AM/3:00PM) from January 27-March 4, 2012. Tickets Php350/Php500 each. Contact (02)7256244, (02)4100821-22, 09175765400 or petatheater@gmail.com for more details. 

**Photos are from PETA’s press kit. 

Portia

Portia Placino is an Associate Editor of The Shakespeare Standard and an Art History Lecturer at St. Scholastica's College, Manila. She continually writes on art and culture, looks into the world through the camera's eye and engages people in artistic discourse. Her other writings are located at http://portiaplacino.com

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