« Born to the Purple | Main | To Life »
August 02, 2003
Review: (Play) Hamlet
It would be arrogant for me to review Shakespeare, despite what I may have to say about the methods used to teach him. And while I am that arrogant 500 years of performance does the job for me, I should think...
Ah, but what of those performances? Last night I watched a Shakespeare Santa Cruz performance of Hamlet and I must say that I was quite impressed...
Though the play is affiliated with the University of California at Santa Cruz, there were surprisingly few students in either the cast or audience. There were a good many Equity (an actors union) members performing, so the acting was superb...
One of the interesting things about seeing a play like Hamlet is its very familiarity to the audience. Who has not heard at least a line or two from Polonius ("This above all, to thine own self be true"), or perhaps Queen Gertrude ("The Lady doth protest too much, Methinks"). This play in particular is filled with lines that have reverberated through hundreds of years of English-Language history. Perhaps the most famous of which is the To Be or Not to Be speech...
For over five centuries that one speech has thrilled audiences, I am told that in New York in the early 19th century there was a riot over the delivery of that particular monologue. The actor was well aware of his place in history and-- standing in the isle way speaking to the audience-- delivered a rendition to make proud any of the possibly millions who have delivered it before him...
The acting was superb, yes. And truly that may be all that is necessary for a radio drama. The stage is also a visual medium composed of the stage itself, costuming and lighting. In addition to the acting, there are occasionally sound and music effects added. Since the Cast and the Bard delivered, how did the rest hold up?
The Costuming was good, if not inspired. As my girlfriend said "the costuming lady got off light". The play was set in the modern day (no, the lines were not changed to reflect this, thank the gods), and the costumes were spot on for the station of the various people. Expensive, but off the rack...
The lighting seemed fine to me, that is, I didn't notice it. My Girlfriend (a theatre technician by trade) said that it was "overly angular", but "well focused". Nothing inspired, but not insipid...
The audio choices left much to be desired. The electric guitar played between scenes became jangling rather than melodic. At first the director tried to work it into the play itself (the first music cue ends with Hamlet takes off a pair of headphones) but the director only used that device twice. The effect is to first draw us into the play by making all the sounds part of the play itself; when the effect is abandoned we the audience are tossed out of the play, reminded that we are watching something not real. The sound ends up being almost overbearingly movie-like. At the end, when the bodies are on the floor and Horatio says "and the rest is silence", before the last syllable managed to drift off beyond the glen, that damned guitar picked up and started playing. This turned a poignant moment into a satire. The acting cannot be faulted, but the direction must be...
As for the set itself! My goodness, that was a work of art in its own right. Made with real glass and steel (an extravagant expense for a theatre) it was constructed with panels that slide into place giving an incredible amount of flexibility with little movement. To call it stunning would be to overuse that word; the saddest part is that the set will go the way of each of its predecessors, stricken at the close of the run...
The play deserves 4 Polonius' pontificating out of 5 Polonius' pontificating. If left to their own devices, the actors could have made the show perfect. The director wouldn't, or couldn't let such a venerated play stand on its own merits, more fool her. That sin alone looses an entire point...
Posted by Andrew at August 2, 2003 01:30 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.punningpundit.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/114