Review: Globe’s compact ‘King Lear,’ at the Broad, lacks needed heft

“King Lear” is regarded as Shakespeare’s pinnacle achievement in tragedy, a masterpiece of vast scope and overwhelming intensity. How big is it? A.C. Bradley, the great Shakespearean scholar, contended that the play was “too huge for the stage.”

The international touring production from Shakespeare’s Globe of London now at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica seems determined to answer this charge with a portable staging of “King Lear” performed by an ensemble of eight multi-tasking actors on a small wooden set that has the unpretentious look of a high school shop class’ final project.

You’ve heard of carry-on luggage. This is carry-on Shakespeare.

Bill Buckhurst, who co-directed the Globe’s similarly compact touring production of “Hamlet” that came to the Broad in 2012, takes a decidedly frolicsome approach to this harrowing tale of the old king who foolishly divides his kingdom between his flattering daughters and only discovers the truth of life when he has been mercilessly stripped of the royal pomp that had blinded him in the past.

As productions of “King Lear” go, this is lightweight and largely forgettable. But this staging, which stars a spry Joseph Marcell in the title role, is as much a celebration of the act of performing Shakespeare’s majestic tragedy as it is a retread of its terrifying story.

Before the show begins, the actors can be seen making their preparations and bantering with audience members. The house lights stay on during the production to approximate the conditions at the company’s outdoor London home. And an accordion-led musical number, in which audience members clap along, reinforces the communal nature of this theatrical experience.

Much of the enjoyment of this “Lear” comes from the playful logistics of having a small cast populate the world of this sprawling play. The Globe has this antic method down to a science, though the fun doesn’t go deep or last long.

Some of the doubling is routine. Cordelia and the Fool don’t have scenes together, so it’s not unheard of to have these roles filled by the same actor. Bethan Cullinane is more memorable as Lear’s youngest daughter than she is as his jester, but then she’s not saddled with a ridiculous woolen cap (a substitute for motley) that makes her look like a Hello Kitty trick-or-treater.

Alex Mugnaioni plays Edgar as a bookish nerd afraid of his own shadow, raising questions about how anyone could think this gentle character capable of conspiracy to murder. Mugnaioni effectively makes the prescribed transformation into Poor Tom, though things get a tad blurry when the production requires the actor to also play the Duke of Cornwall.

It’s amazing that the story is as clearly delineated as it is, with John Stahl switching between the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Albany and in one drolly handled moment Edmund and Oswald (both of whom are played by Daniel Pirrie) sharing the stage with Gwendolen Chatfield’s Goneril.

Disguise is built into the play, with both Edgar and Kent (Bill Nash, relieved of having to play any other major roles) forced by circumstances to conceal their identities, so all this hyperactive playacting doesn’t come as a shock. But thank heavens for the red curtain hung clothesline-style facilitating the legerdemain and the use of caps and helmets allowing major characters to serve as supernumeraries.

Jonathan Fensom’s design scheme ingeniously assists Buckhurst’s staging, but what’s the point of all this clever downsizing?

Marcell, a veteran stage actor who was on the TV series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” has a commanding voice and theatrical agility to spare. But he doesn’t have the gravitas needed to deliver the play’s pathos, and the production encourages him and his fellow actors to skate along the surface of their roles. (Chatfield’s Goneril and Shanaya Rafaat’s Regan often seem to be pantomiming their villainy.)

When Marcell’s Lear explodes in Act 1 at Cordelia for not heaving her heart into her mouth, his wrath seems to come from nowhere. The pageant he sets up seems such an obvious game that the shift into thundering enmity doesn’t make much sense dramatically.

The scene in Act 4 between the mad Lear and the blinded Gloucester doesn’t register the heartbreak of two men at the end of their lives searching for meaning in their abominable suffering. Like the production as a whole, it’s just an illustrative sketch of the original, catharsis not included.

‘King Lear’ The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Nov. 16. Tickets: $53 to $98 Info: www.thebroadstage.com, (310) 434-3200 Running time: 3 hours

Twitter: @CharlesMcNulty