"Hamlet" at ACT

ACT photo by Kevin Berne

I believe this is the fourth time I have blogged on the play Hamlet in just the last couple of years. The fact that I saw it well over a dozen times last year at Shotgun Players suggests that I like the play. It's a classic for a reason, and watching different stagings and castings and interpretations is always educational.

The Play

No, really, I'm not going to summarize the play. If you don't know, go read it. Or go see it. Or (better yet) both.

What I will say here, since there are many ways to cut or otherwise alter the play, that ACT largely kept the full text in place, meaning it was a 3-hour production. Since the vast majority of my recent viewings were of Shotgun's reduced version, I was looking forward to seeing the full show again. Truthfully, the wrapper story with Norway doesn't really add much to the play (except in the sort of academic sense that it gives us a third iteration of sons avenging slain fathers). I marveled at the fact that Jomar Tagatac as young Fortinbras really does only appear for about the last two minutes of the play, with no other roles, until I realized he is also the understudy for Hamlet, which is plenty to keep him busy.

That said, it's really nice to hear some of the less-famous speeches in all their Shakespearean fullness. Much of the joy of Hamlet is the beauty of the poetry, so although it doesn't necessarily enlarge on the story per se, it does increase the enjoyment of the telling.

The Production

As with most productions of Hamlet, the discussion starts with the casting of the title role. It's a huge role (in terms of the number of lines and time spent on stage). ACT went with a very experienced Shakespearean actor, John Douglas Thompson, last seen at ACT in Satchmo at the Waldorf. He's a bit old for "young Hamlet," but that's not an insurmountable obstacle. Indeed, by casting mature actors for the older generation [Gertrude (Domenique Lozano), Claudius/Ghost (Steven Anthony Jones), and Polonius (Dan Hiatt)], director Carey Perloff makes it at least plausible that Hamlet the son is at least pushing middle age, and his friend Horatio (Anthony Fusco) is of similar age.

Somewhat less plausible, however, are the castings of Hamlet's love interest, Ophelia (Rivka Borek), and his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Teddy Spencer and Vincent J. Randazzo, respectively). They all do terrific jobs, but there is no covering for the fact that their characters all seem much too young for the relationships they have with an older Hamlet. The friends aren't too worrisome, but the scenes between Hamlet and Ophelia just have a certain...uncomfortable aspect.

A few other notes on casting and performances. Hiatt as Polonius does a fine job. He's a really solid, reliable character actor who manages to make his character here credible without veering over into farce. All of the actors who are members of the ACT MFA program (Borek, Peter Fanone, Adrianna Mitchell, and Randazzo) blend extremely well into the cast, unlike some of their predecessors. I usually worry when I see MFA students in the cast, but this time I was very pleased with the results. On the downside, I had been looking forward to Jones' portrayal of Claudius, as he is one of the long-time stalwarts of the ACT company and I have many memories of him carrying shows over the years. Unfortunately, here he seemed a bit out of place, struggling for lines at times, and generally displaying little energy or fire in a role that really requires it. As a result, some of the energy that should exist between Hamlet and his uncle/stepfather is just missing, and though the words are there, it falls a little flat.

As for design, scenic designer David Israel Reynoso seems to have taken rather literally the lines about Denmark being a prison. It feels a bit like being in a really large, dreary Alcatraz prison. Within that setting, some of the choices seem a bit odd, such as the heavy plastic curtain behind which the ghost appears, or the various curtains and arrases the slide noisily in and out between scenes. One of the few fittings in the structure, a brass showerhead, seems oddly placed when we're in the throne room, though less so when the setting is one of the characters' bedrooms. It just seems an odd choice in such a sparse staging to have one very obvious object that is not itself important.

And my resident clothing historian tells me that the costumes (also by Reynoso) place the characters clearly in the late 1950s to early 1960s, which is fine for the setting, I guess, but there doesn't seem to be any actual reason to set the play then. Perhaps there is some large message to this timing that eludes me, but I get nothing from it.

Finally, there are the weapons. At times there are wooden "daggers" that seem like harmless sparring practice tools, and that's OK, I guess. But then later they pull out some "swords" that look like some weird cross between a metal pipe and a screwdriver. This seems rather inexplicable, as it doesn't seem in keeping with the period of the setting at all, unless I'm supposed to see them as improvised weapons like shivs that prisoners might construct. Otherwise, I don't quite get it.

The Bottom Line

All in all, it's a decent rendition of Hamlet. I expected a bit more from the experienced members of the cast. The chemistry between the characters is just not really there. Besides the aforementioned lack of fire between Claudius and Hamlet, I also don't see the friendship between Hamlet and Horatio. Both are so reserved around each other, they seem more like long-time coworkers than best friends. And similarly, I have trouble understanding the relationship between Hamlet and Laertes (Teagle F. Bougere), perhaps because they don't seem to understand it, either. Laertes' ire seems to ebb and flow very quickly, but it's hard to see him as being particularly incensed at Hamlet, versus just angry.

Producing such a well-known play sort of demands that you have a reason for doing it, a message that you're trying to get across. It's not really enough to just put on the play, say the words, and check it off on your bucket list. And that's what I feel like I'm seeing: an actor who always wanted to play Hamlet, and director who wanted to direct it, and yet neither seems to have a compelling message to put across with this production.

It's not bad, and parts are good. But I can't help feeling that it should have been much more.

The play runs for another week, through October 15th.