The Porters of Hellsgate open their seventh season by diving headlong into Shakespeare’s seminal tragedy, King Lear. Militaristic in style, and set against an industrial, barren landscape, the Porters explore the destruction of family by greed and ambition, and blindness in the face of regret.
Director Thomas Bigley talked about how the partnership with Cedar came about saying, “I’ve been wanting to dig into Lear for a few years now, because I’ve been thinking about and struggling with my relationship with my own father, and what’s theatre for if you can’t work those things out in front of a paying live audience? So when the chance to work with Larry came up, I jumped at it. That chance came through Porters’ other Associate Artistic Director, Gus Krieger. Gus had worked with him as an actor on the indie film ALYCE. They got to talking about theater and Shakespeare which naturally led Gus to bringing up The Porters. He mentioned that we’d been trying to do Lear for a while, but couldn’t find the right guy. Larry is an experienced stage actor, so naturally, such a great role piqued his interest. He came to several of our productions, enjoyed them, and decided he’d like to work with us. The three of us had a meeting about the play earlier this year. We talked about our ideas and, by the end of it, we were all excited about doing Lear together.”
“Working with Larry is great fun,” Bigley adds. “It’s exciting to get to work with an actor that you’ve been a fan of for years, and even more thrilling when they are as talented and easy to work with as Larry. I’m only 32, so it’s been invaluable having guys like Larry Cedar and Leon Russom in the rehearsal process. Their wisdom of the craft and wealth of knowledge is an absolute joy to take advantage of. They’ve also got some kick-ass stories.”
In Shakespeare’s play, King Lear has divided his kingdom among his three daughters. Deceived by age and pride, he banishes his youngest daughter, blind to her devotion and the greed and cruelty of his two eldest. Lear is cast out by his eldest daughters into a raging storm and forced to keep company with fools and madmen, while Gloucester’s bastard son Edmund schemes against his half-brother Edgar. Tension mounts as sanity is lost, sight is taken, and war breaks out for control of the kingdom in the Bard’s stunning meditation on aging, family, and hysteria.
Featured in the cast are:
King Lear – Larry Cedar
Earl of Gloucester – Leon Russom
Goneril – Kate O’Toole
Regan – Dana DeRuyck
Cordelia – Christina MacKinnon
Edgar – Gus Krieger
Edmund – Alex Parker
Earl of Kent – Jamey Hecht
Fool – Jo D. Jonz
Oswald – Jesse James Thomas
Duke of Albany – Sean Faye
Duke of Cornwall – Kevin Stidham
Ensemble – Hilary Schwartz, Michael Bigley, Tim Portnoy
King Lear opens January 4 at 8pm and runs Friday & Saturday nights at 8pm, and Sundays at 5pm through January 27th, 2013. The six-week run continues Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm through February 9. There will be talk-backs with the cast the 2nd-4th Sundays.
King Lear
Studio/Stage
520 North Western Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tickets: $20, $15 for students/seniors 60+/AEA.
Reservations: Call (818) 325-2055 or
http://PortersLear.brownpapertickets.com
Shakespeare in LA 