QUEEN GONERIL - REVIEW OF SOULPEPPER THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

If you are going to the theatre in the next couple of weeks, head for the Distillery District in Toronto and see King Lear first and then Queen Goneril at the Young Centre for Soulpepper Theatre’s two productions. The first is by William Shakespeare, of course, and the second is by Erin Shields. The plays are more than 400 years apart but they are intertwined and will make you think hard about both.

After seeing King Lear, you will be reminded that Goneril was his older daughter and she with her sister Regan drove their father insane and he spouted such hatred and curses about his children as to be frightful. The angelic Cordelia and Lear died in Shakespeare’s play but so did the evil sisters, Gloucester, his evil, bastard son Edmund (Jonathan Young) and the sadistic Cornwall (Philip Riccio).

Shields’ play is a prequel and in fact takes place seven years before the action in King Lear when he finally divides his kingdom in three parts before going into retirement. The three-way division turns into two when Cordelia cannot express her love for her father the way her hypocritical sisters can lie and exaggerate.

Seven years before that, Goneril is an astute and ambitious woman who wants to become queen to save her country from her father’s approaching dotage and his woeful mismanagement. She is gay and sleeps with her servant Olena.

Sheldon Elter, Jonathon Young, Virgilia Griffith, 

and Tom McCamus. Photo by Dahlia Katz

The sisters have memories of their mother including a music box that was left to Cordelia. It goes missing and Olena (Breton Lalama) is accused of theft. She states she is innocent and refuses to apologize for something she did not do. She is banished but stay tuned for the revelation of who stole the music box, the reason for doing it and what it reveals about the thief. In King Lar Goneril has a steward called Oswald. He appears in Queen Goneril too and there may be a relationship between Olena and Oswald that goes beyond what you may imagine. My lips are sealed.

The sisters, you may have guessed are not on the best of terms but keep in mind the feminist approach to the story where the point is made forcefully that Lear is losing it and the kingdom is in shambles and only a powerful woman like Goneril can save it.

We all remember the Earl of Gloucester whose eyes were gouged out for helping Lear. He is the king’s best friend in Queen Goneril. Let’s go to the first scene of King Lear where Gloucester introduces his son Edmund, a bastard, and brags that there was good sport at his making with a fair but unwed woman. Those comments deserve more attention than I have ever given them.  Edmund in King Lear is indeed a bastard and he tries to destroy his father and half-brother Edgar and everything else.

In Queen Goneril Gloucester (Oliver Dennis), after a few drinks, sexually assaults, to be more precise rapes Regan. He explains his weakness for women to Edmund who has a malleable moral conscience (unlike the prudish Edgar (Damien Atkins) who is in France). We know it was good sport in making Edmund but did he rape his mother?  

In King Lear, Gloucester falls in the hands of Regan and her sadistic husband Cornwall. They accuse him of treachery and Cornwall gouges out one of his eyes. Regan tells him to take the other one out too. That is a marvellous connection between the two plays.  Regan and Cornwall may appear sadistic (they are) in King Lear but Shields gives us a damn good reason for their action in Queen Goneril.

These are some of the fascinating connecting tissues between the old classic and the new feminist play. In some ways they illuminate King Lear and make Shield’s play captivating.

Virgilia Griffith. Photo by Dahlia Katz

The same cast is in both plays. Tom McCamus gives a towering but more limited performance in Queen Goneril. Virgilia Griffith plays the ambitious conniving and evil Goneril with a mission in life that includes that women can be just as good as men, if not better.  Regan (Vanessa Sears) is just as bad, if not worse and Lear’s angelic Cordelia (Helen Belay) is not. The three actors give powerful performances and their characters are fascinating in the hands of Shields and her approach to the position of women in the plot. The cast does well without being hampered by the difficulties of Shakespeare’s language especially the iambic pentameters.

Weyni Mengesha directs judiciously and expertly. 

Shields has written an interesting play that is done well and much of the fascination lies in it’s feminist approach but also in its close relationship with King Lear. Having that play fresh in your mind adds to one’s enjoyment of Queen Goneril so I am not sure how many viewings it will get if it is not paired with Shakespeare’s play. In any event if you want to be rivetted and entertained you should really see both plays. There may not be such an opportunity again in a long time.     

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Queen Goneril by Erin Shields continues until October 2, 2022, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario M5A 3C4. www.soulpepper.ca.