PROFILE : Bridging a Family Gap : Actress Lynn Redgrave creates ‘Shakespeare For My Father’ to focus on her parent-child relationship.

The longing of a child for a father she barely knew may be a fairly common theme, but in actress Lynn Redgrave’s case that isolation took on some unique dimensions.

Redgrave was the youngest child of the distinguished actor Sir Michael Redgrave, who died in 1985 from Parkinson’s disease.

For Lynn, acclaimed in her own right for her work on stage, film, and television, even a common career and a lifetime together weren’t enough to bridge the gap between father and daughter.

“I knew my Shakespeare but I didn’t know my father,” Redgrave sums up the relationship, “only the characters he played.”

In an attempt to breach that gap, Redgrave has created a one-woman show, “Shakespeare For My Father,” interweaving personal anecdotes, reminiscences, and the most fundamental vocabulary she shared with her late father--the dialogue of William Shakespeare.

She hopes her theme will strike a common chord for audiences. In a recent phone interview, Redgrave said there is something inherently compelling about the father figure. “We all need to know where we’ve come from, and this person who begat us--it’s quite an overwhelming thing when you feel that you don’t know him and you do need to come to terms with it,” she said.

While she was growing up, her father’s brilliance weighed heavily on the household, Redgrave said. “There was always a sense in the house--almost like a sign on the door: ‘Genius in Residence.’ That was a given--we weren’t just in the house of a man who happened to be an actor and that happened to be his job--it was taken very seriously, and everything revolved around this.”

Where most parents strive for continuity and stability in their work and home lives, her father’s occupation and chameleon-like abilities kept their home in a state of flux.

“So there was a different aura in the house depending on what sort of role he was playing. And of course the only aura that was any fun to a kid was the comedy, because then he turned into this light and bright character, wanting to play songs ‘round the piano and things like that.”

Otherwise, if the role was King Lear, the air turned very very heavy. “He withdrew, and there was a feeling in the air, a sense of awe, of strangeness. Which it had to be, but of course it affected us, in particular me, because there was this stranger in the house who nonetheless was my father, and who I desperately longed to know.”

Since the Shakespearean plays formed as much a part of Redgrave’s personal history as her family memories, the use of passages from Shakespeare was a natural structure for her performance piece, which she stressed was neither a lecture nor an academic exercise.

“I often turn to my Shakespeare or remember passages that suddenly make sense of my joy or my sorrow or illuminate my feelings,” she said. “What I hope is that I can communicate my joy of it, even to people who don’t know their Shakespeare, or have been intimidated by him through having been taught it in a dull boring way, or just thought it wasn’t for them because of the archaic language or the poetry.

“Shakespeare is for all of us, and of course that’s why he continues to be the greatest playwright, to be performed in every language and every country again and again, and will be for the rest of time, I believe.”

The first half of “Shakespeare For My Father” is Redgrave’s view of her father from a childhood perspective. “The second half is my adult perspective, and particularly my search for him after his death,” she said. The show embraces a variety of formats. “Some of it is memories, some of it is just me telling a story to the audience. Some of it involves little scenes in which you may have characters from Shakespeare and characters from my life.”

These autobiographical scenes involve her parents, sister Vanessa, and luminaries from the theater world that formed their close circle of family acquaintances--including Laurence Olivier, Noel Coward, Dame Edith Evans, and Tony Richardson.

The show is not a recital of favorite passages from Shakespeare, Redgrave emphasized. There is always a connection between the Shakespeare passages and the events in her life. Usually the connection is obvious, even if the passage might be obscure. For example, seeing a particular production of “Twelfth Night” at Stratford on Avon in 1958 convinced Redgrave she wanted to become an actress--so the first act ends with a speech by Viola from that play.

“The connections make sense to me and will to others, I hope, even if they’re unexpected--not necessarily roles my father or I played,” she said.

“The Shakespeare illuminates my story, but my story also puts the Shakespeare into a context. So it’s a genuine theater piece--or at least I hope so,” she said with a laugh. “At least its very theatrical.”

Redgrave’s appearance at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre will be the first public performance of her completed script.

She calls the Lobero performance a “Sneak Preview,” adding that the official world premiere will be in the new performing arts center in Cerritos on the 21st.” A six-week, 30-city tour follows.

The show has been staged by Redgrave’s husband, actor/director John Clark. The one-night appearance will be a return engagement of sorts for the couple, who performed A. R. Gurney’s “Love Letters” at the Lobero Theatre last summer.

“We love the Lobero,’ Redgrave said. “It is a very welcoming place.”

* WHERE AND WHEN

“Shakespeare For My Father.” Performed Friday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido Street in Santa Barbara. Tickets are $20 ($12 students and seniors). For reservations or further information call 963-0761.