What The Press Has Said
(photo: Doug Forster)
Susanna Hamnett shines in Nearly Lear.
Who knew that William Shakespeare’s epic tragedy, King Lear, could actually be funny? Viewers of the N.C. State University Center Stage production of Nearly Lear found this out as they listened to the tragedy through the eyes of court jester, Norris (actually Noreen in drag), played to perfection by the gifted Susanna Hamnett… Although the play does touch on much of the sadness of the story, it is really the story of Noreen herself that is most captivating…both approachable and frighteningly vulnerable…a truly complex character.
Fast paced and exciting to watch, Nearly Lear can expected to go far. Although the writing is solid and intriguing, it is really Hamnett who is the real powerhouse of the play. She portrays at least six different characters effortlessly, never missing a beat or ceasing to explode with seemingly boundless energy. Her performance and the spot-on directorial skills of Edith Tankus create a character and a performance that viewers will not soon forget.
Susie Potter, Triangle Arts and Entertainment. (September 29th, 2010)
Everyone interested in the theatre and drama should have been at the Aberdeen Arts Centre last night, there should have been queues up and down King Street. Such is the mighty theatrical force that is Susanna Hamnett and her one-woman version of Shakespeare’s King Lear – Nearly Lear (created with and directed by Edith Tankus)
Hamnett is a seriously gifted English actress based in Toronto. Skilled in Shakespeare, clown, vaudeville and storytelling Hamnett created Nearly Lear in 2008 and it’s been winning audiences across Canada and America ever since.
Retold through the eyes of court jester, Noreen played with razor-sharp hypertension by Hamnett the tale unfolds at gunfire velocity with more wit, mischief and sheer playfulness than you can legally pack into 80 minutes of live theatre.
Every character is vividly etched and Hamnett plays them all with dazzling verve. The simple set, designed by Lindsay Anne Black, consists of three mobile curtains through which and around Hamnett moves assisted by sound effects and a lively soundtrack.
A film featuring Hamnett’s husband and daughter playing King Lear and a young Cordelia acts as a moving coda. There was a lot of young people in last night’s audience and Hamnett connected with them immediately bringing Shakespeare to life with a vibrancy they will never forget.
Roddy Phillips, Aberdeen Press and Journal. (October 27th, 2010)
(Photos: Ari Mintz for The New York Times)
Squeezing one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies into a tight 90 minutes is no simple feat. Equally challenging is transforming said work, which also happens to be one of his more death-ridden and violent, into a show suitable for youngsters.
This is the formidable task that the British-born actress Susanna Hamnett and the director Edith Tankus have set for themselves — and accomplish with surprising brio and humor — in Nearly Lear an engaging solo show presented by the New Victory Theater at the Duke on 42nd St…
It’s a frisky, funny, vaudevillian…tantalizing introduction to the lifelong pleasures of seeing and reading Shakespeare…
Ms. Hamnett introduces herself as a woman named Noreen who changed her name to Norris and pretended to be a man to apply for the position of Fool at the court of King Lear. There she witnessed the ripping tale she is about to enact before us, but not before warning that it will be grim indeed. Creditably, Nearly Lear doesn’t add any sugar to Shakespeare’s sanguinary story, letting the corpses fall where they may.
“There will be bodily fluids pouring out of your eyes and nose,” Noreen promises. She thoughtfully distributes some Kleenex to the front row, showering a snowfall of tissues on one fellow she perceives as being particularly sensitive. She then places the box in view of the rest of us, should we be overcome.
Ms. Hamnett is an energetic, virtuosic performer with a touch of the endearing goofball. Leaping from character to character — a slightly stiff, self-important Lear; a simpering Regan; a snooty Goneril; a sincere Cordelia — she manages to give each character a distinct voice (the varied accents are impeccable), and she keeps the story in clear focus.
Ms. Hamnett uses no costume changes, and the set is merely three linen screens on rollers, but there are a few ingenious, no-frills special effects. The famous eye gouging is handled with playful humor that keeps it gross enough to be icky without actually being scary. And the storm scene also has its unexpectedly funny aspects.
Noting that care must be taken to establish the power of what is “the worst storm in all of English literature,” Ms. Hamnett whips out a spray bottle and descends upon the delighted audience, spritzing indiscriminately. It is the most enjoyable — O.K., maybe the only enjoyable — example of audience participation I’ve ever witnessed..
But Ms. Hamnett does not fail to honor the ultimate darkness of the play’s vision… I found myself eyeing that tissue box forlornly once or twice.
Charles Isherwood, New York Times. (January 10th, 2011)
Susanna Hamnett brings humour and depth to Nearly Lear.
Actor Susanna Hamnett has been absent from the stage for several years raising a family. So it’s appropriate that her impressive return comes via Nearly Lear, a bravura show emphasizing the parent-child bond in Shakespeare’s great tragedy…
Hamnett and her director, Edith Tankus’s clown-based version is seen through the eyes of the Fool, here a Scottish woman named Noreen disguised as a man named Norris so she/he can work for the King and please her dad.
What Norris discovers is a family ripped apart by vanity and greed, culminating, of course, in a corpse-strewn final scene. A born jester, the fool wants us to have a good time, and underlines points colourfully, spraying himself with water to evoke a storm or handing out tissues so that we can dry our inevitable tears.
Hamnett disappears into the half-dozen characters (there’s no Kent or Edgar), clearly delineating the three sisters, the strutting Osmond and the decline and fall of the great king himself. This goes beyond mere party piece to become compelling, gripping theatre.
Under Tankus’s direction, Lindsay Anne Black’s moveable screens work wonderfully to evoke palatial entrances, lusty beds or – in one poignant scene – a makeshift shawl for the mad Lear on the heath.
I won’t ruin the surprise of Gloucester’s blinding scene.
At one point, Norris, exhaustedly playing the two evil daughters and Lear, whispers to the audience that she deserves a Dora for her work. Not a bad idea.
Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine NNNN (24th January 2008)
…As comic as Norris’s retelling of Lear is, the tragedy and beauty of Shakespeare’s work comes through – but in a new and different way. Instead of showing us the story, in all its traditional grandeur, Norris tells it, in a way that is both gentle and devastating at the same time.
Andrew O’Connor, CBC Radio (28th January 2008)