Photo, Blaine Davis Amelia Workman (as Cordelia), Paul Lazar (as Edgar), Okwui Okpokwasili (as Goneril) and April Matthis (as Regan) star in Young Jean Lee’s “Lear.”

By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

NEW YORK (Jan. 28, 2010) — Young Jean Lee’s “Lear” is best described as a spirited experiment, and thus an imperfect theater piece. There are ideas of great scope crammed into the 80 minutes of this one act, especially when Lee focuses in on the relationship between children and their fathers.

But finding any cohesion or fully realized thought is difficult. It feels too much like a tryout.

Lee, who has garnered much acclaim for her recent plays, both writes and directs this alternate continuation of Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” A program note titled “A Partial and Approximately Accurate Synopsis of Shakespeare’s King Lear” offers an idea of what type of Bard interpretation this piece will be. Lee is less interested in a rigid reading of the text, and more enamored with exploring the circumstances of Lear’s three daughters, Regan (April Matthis), Goneril (Okwui Okpokwasili) and Cordelia (Amelia Workman).

Edgar (Paul Lazar) and Edmund (Pete Simpson), sons of Lear’s adviser Gloucester, are also present to share thoughts with the three women.

The five players act their regal part decked out in period costume and in a royal hall filled with mirrors and a throne. The proceedings strike an instant odd note and continue until the final blackout. The characters speak in semi-Elizabethan language, yet haphazardly break into modern talk blanketed by modern mannerisms.

There’s even a “Sesame Street” segment spoken by an actor in quite a contorted position. Yes, this is not your grandmother’s Shakespeare.

What Lee is getting at with the piece comes into focus during the play’s beautifully written monologues. One particular inventive speech comes when one of the actors breaks the barrier between audience and performer and asks some revealing questions of those assembled in the tiny seating section at Soho Rep., where the show is being presented through Feb. 14.

Also, during one of the final passages, one realizes why Lee dedicated “Lear” to her own father: she’s on a quest to explore the breakage of children from their parents. “And I will end up that way if I’m not careful, if I don’t change, if I allow this egotism to consume me,” Lee writes in the final soliloquy for a son talking to his father. “Everything that happens to his body will happen to mine. It’s happening already. I look older. I’ve gotten used to lying half-awake, in and out of nightmares, waking up unharmed but not safe.”

This young playwright takes on issues in an assaulting manner, throwing every device and thought into the words of the play, like throwing darts in the dark of night. Some hit with razor precision. Others, less so.

I suppose it’s a credit to the artist that the “Sesame Street” segment, one of the strangest parts of “Lear,” is also one of the most poignant, perhaps proving the oddity of this experiment has a backbone.

“Lear” is currently playing at Soho Rep. in New York City. Visit www.sohorep.org for more information.