"Hamlet" at Marin Shakespeare Company

 You already know I'm a sucker for Hamlet. Not just my frequent-flyer status when Shotgun did their "Hamlet Roulette" several years ago, where I ended up seeing about 18 different variations on their version with actors drawing their roles right before curtain. But lately, of course, seeing The Motive and the Cue and Fat Ham have rekindled the old interest. Plus there is other personal connection here, so, more Hamlet!

The Play

As usual, I won't bother summarizing a classic play such as this one. But here I should note that this is a pretty unique interpretation of the play, as envisioned by Jon Tracy, the new artistic producer for summer shows at Marin Shakespeare Company. Jon is a friend of mine, and also a deep thinker about theater and such, so I was interested in seeing his take on this play. Among other things, he endeavors to make sure all the characters (except the ones he edited out) have real character, real stories. And he definitely gives agency to some of the characters who normally just seem to go along for the ride.

I don't want to spill the beans on some of the changes (though you can learn about a number of them in the mainstream press reviews), but suffice it to say that it's a unique and provocative take on Hamlet.

The Production

At over 2.5 hours, it seems a little silly to call this a "trimmed-down" version of the play, but it is very much that. Entire scenes and plot lines (Fortinbras? What Norwegians?) are excised, and other scenes are kind of mashed together, but for the most part it works, and it maintains the messages that Tracy and the company want to focus on. 

Several things I found very effective: Bookending the play with the grave digger worked really well (and it really helps when the grave digger (Lady Zen) has an amazing voice. Breaking Hamlet's many soliloquies into smaller pieces, interspersed with action that makes them clearer. And in one case, having Hamlet (Nick Musleh) share the soliloquy with Ophelia (désirée freda), making it much richer and also adding to our understanding of both characters and their relationship. And playing with expectations generally, especially around the way characters die. I mean, it's still Hamlet, and lots of them are going to die, but this version changes up the way some of those happen, and it works well.

Some things work less well. The set (by Nina Ball, of course) is quite simple, featuring a large table and some moveable chairs. But rotating the table between scenes is time-consuming and distracting. Also, since when does a king (e.g., Michael Torres as Claudius) move furniture? It makes more sense when Polonius (Richard Pallaziol) is staging a room for his boss or for some particular meeting or use. But other times it just makes no sense in the context of the play. And of all the adjustments to spotlight characters and their stories, Laertes (Rinabeth Apostol) comes out on the short end. If anything, I have less understanding of his behavior in this version than I normally do in Hamlet.

But overall I thought the production was good and interesting. It didn't feel like it went on for over 2.5 hours. It was fun and kept us thinking and talking about the production for days.

The Bottom Line

I think this is well worth seeing. If you're not well versed in Hamlet, some bits of it might be confusing, but the crowd we saw it with seemed very pleased, and we enjoyed it greatly.

The play runs through July 16 at the Forest Meadows Amphitheater at Dominican University in San Rafael. The Amphitheater is quite nice, by the way. This was my first visit, and one of the regular attendees pointed out lots of recent improvements to the amphitheater.

Well worth your time. Go see Hamlet!