BWW Reviews: Southwest Shakespeare's KING JOHN Is A Royal Treat

It is the Throne that takes center stage in Jared Sakren's searing production of William Shakespeare's King John ~ and all the men and women in it merely players to its seductions and channels for the issues that try the souls of their time.

It is Maren Maclean who supercharges the play with an electrifying performance as Constance, the aggrieved mother who wants, nay demands, only that her son Arthur (Liam Thibeault) be given that which is rightfully, in her eyes, his legacy ~ that Throne.

Well after Maclean departs the stage, the force of her presence and passion still reigns. To watch her perform is to take an advanced class in acting. She infuses each phrase with well-considered intention and adroitly pivots from one posture and mood to another, engaging every fiber and gesture of her body, with the deftness of a prima ballerina.

King John is one of the Bard's English History plays, woefully underproduced but thankfully revealed for its richness and potential by Southwest Shakespeare Company's treatment.

Intrigue, shifting loyalties, and betrayal are the stuff of this play whose themes regarding rightful succession, national unity, and papal authority certainly resonated with Elizabethan audiences but, in their broader scope, have as much relevance today as then. Might made right then and power corrupted then as they all too often do today.

From the get-go, Shakespeare cuts to the chase. An envoy of Philip, the King of France (Clay Sanderson) arrives at John's court to lay claim to the English throne in the name of Arthur Plantagenet (Liam Thibeault), son of the Lion-Hearted, and threatening war if John does not capitulate. Pride wins, and John's response to France is "war for war and blood for blood, controlment for controlment." The gauntlet has been thrown down; so unfold the banners of war.

Before the first volley, however, Shakespeare treats King John (Beau Heckman) to a controversy ~ again regarding rightful inheritance ~ that pits the claims of two brothers, Philip and Robert Faulconbridge, to their father's land. In a delightful flow of pithy exchanges, the former is revealed to be the bastard son of John's brother, Richard the Lion Hearted. John is no Solomon here; rather it is Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (Kathryn Kellner Brown).who beseeches the Bastard to surrender his claim and give fealty to John as the newly dubbed Sir Richard Plantagenet. The Bastard is a rich part and richly played by Ross Hellwig who taunts his foes with withering wit and guides the audience through the play with clever and acrobatic asides. It is, indeed, of him that Austria asks, "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?"

Clever twist and turns, all a function of political convenience or manipulation, ensue: the entreaties by England and France that the strategic stronghold of Angiers submit to their respective forces, only to be foiled by the town's pragmatic response that loyalty will be withheld until a victor is proclaimed; the Bastard's calculated compromise to avert an Angiers conflagration by forging a bond between the kingdoms' surrogates, Lewis the Dauphin (William Wilson) and John's niece Blanche (Alyson Maloney); the added complication of the demands by the Pope's legate, Cardinal Pandulph that John submit to the papacy; and so it goes to the inevitably fateful end, but an end with a profound and relevant message ~ "that This England never did, nor never shall lie at the proud foot of a conqueror...if England to itself do rest but true."

Pathos resides in this play as well, notably in two scenes that are equally riveting and attest to the stagecraft of their actors: The first, between Arthur and Hubert in which the latter has been commanded by John to put an end to the young aspirant. Jesse James Kamps delivers a powerful and poignant performance as Hubert, the righteously torn agent of the king. The second is the furious contest of wills and barbs in Act II between Constance and Eleanor, two proud and protective mothers, seething with raw power and emotion.

King John unfolds with a rich ensemble on a simple stage with pomp and circumstance and battle scenes (that, frankly, seemed arduous and could have been better paced), all dramatically enhanced by Daniel Davisson's moody lighting.

Alas, the play completes its run at Mesa Arts Center this Saturday the 25th. Time remains. It is well worth seeing and certainly an inducement to see future productions of Southwest Shakespeare Company.

Photo credit to Mark Gluckman