To See or Not to See...
That is the question... for friends of ours, who were supposed to accompany us to the matinee performance of HAMLET at the Shakespeare Theater. They ended up with a family emergency, so they postponed their tickets, but Mark and I went.
And we really can't recommend that our friends hurry back from their emergency to get in to see this production.
The concept (such as there was) was that Hamlet was a petulant teenager. He walks around with his shirt untucked; he throws himself over the furniture. He sulks, and he sneers, and he perpetually runs his hands through his hair. (All of this, before he starts feigning madness.)
Aside from the fact that he was just *annoying*, he was also utterly incomprehensible. It was like listening to Hamlet performed by Marlon Brando, imitating Bob Dylan. Lines were rushed and swallowed, and there was no attempt at phrasing or enunciation.
We see a lot of Shakespeare; we know that viewers need to work with the plays, need to adapt to the style of the language. There was no adapting to this production, alas.
Other minuses: most of the other performers were too soft-spoken to be heard, the second act slowed to a snail's pace, they brought on an arras for the Polonius stabbing that otherwise had no place in the set design, and the final scene (with death after death after death) was almost comic in its staging.
There were a few high points, though: the moment when Gertrude starts to drink the pearl-laden wine (always one of my favorites), the dissembling by Horatio as he cradled the dead Hamlet (so that you couldn't still see Hamlet breathing), and a brilliant final lighting cue that left a light on Hamlet's white-white-white fencing jacket just a moment longer than any other lighting on stage.
Oh - and the language of the play itself. Moreso than any other Shakespeare play, this one has carried itself into the vernacular. The quotable phrases fly fast and furious.
Made me want to get home and write more of my Shakespeare quoting heroine, Jane Madison :-)
Mindy, glad that she's seen other productions at this theater, or she might not go back...
And we really can't recommend that our friends hurry back from their emergency to get in to see this production.
The concept (such as there was) was that Hamlet was a petulant teenager. He walks around with his shirt untucked; he throws himself over the furniture. He sulks, and he sneers, and he perpetually runs his hands through his hair. (All of this, before he starts feigning madness.)
Aside from the fact that he was just *annoying*, he was also utterly incomprehensible. It was like listening to Hamlet performed by Marlon Brando, imitating Bob Dylan. Lines were rushed and swallowed, and there was no attempt at phrasing or enunciation.
We see a lot of Shakespeare; we know that viewers need to work with the plays, need to adapt to the style of the language. There was no adapting to this production, alas.
Other minuses: most of the other performers were too soft-spoken to be heard, the second act slowed to a snail's pace, they brought on an arras for the Polonius stabbing that otherwise had no place in the set design, and the final scene (with death after death after death) was almost comic in its staging.
There were a few high points, though: the moment when Gertrude starts to drink the pearl-laden wine (always one of my favorites), the dissembling by Horatio as he cradled the dead Hamlet (so that you couldn't still see Hamlet breathing), and a brilliant final lighting cue that left a light on Hamlet's white-white-white fencing jacket just a moment longer than any other lighting on stage.
Oh - and the language of the play itself. Moreso than any other Shakespeare play, this one has carried itself into the vernacular. The quotable phrases fly fast and furious.
Made me want to get home and write more of my Shakespeare quoting heroine, Jane Madison :-)
Mindy, glad that she's seen other productions at this theater, or she might not go back...
Actually, I've always thought it would be amusing for them to stage a play - probably over at the old Folger - where the audience milled about and talked and bought oranges and all those other things. (Except it would drive me nuts, in real life. I *despise* noisy audience neighbors!)
I don't mind a noisy, engaged audience. It's snide comments and unrelated side conversations that make me crazy.
I had problems with the concept *and* with the rearrangement-for-no-good-reason...
But I'm so happy...Kenneth Branagh's version is being released on DVD next month! Yay!
The most recent semester of college I had a Shakespeare Tragedy class. Forgot how cool the classics can be, especially Hamlet. I went crazy with the disease symbols.
We saw the Mel Gibson version there; Mad Ophelia was /fun/. How was she at that production? :D
I think that a lot of the Shakespeare problem is also attributed to the fact that we have media to preserve versions of the play, so that everyone can see what others have done, thereby making everyone else feel that they need to be New! And! Different!
The language is lovely, though, isn't it? Makes some of the torture of sitting through a bad production a little less . . .
Ink in My Coffee
http://devonellington.wordpress.com