Sheen Center's HAMLET
Sheen Center's HAMLET
GreasedLightning
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/11/14
#1Sheen Center's HAMLET
Posted: 5/21/17 at 9:57am
Has anyone seen this? Seems like it could be an interesting production of HAMLET, with a pretty superb cast.
GreasedLightning
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/11/14
#4Sheen Center's HAMLET
Posted: 5/21/17 at 6:26pm
This was a very mixed experience for me.
I'm very familiar with the play, and it's one of my favorites, so I like to see people take risks and mess with it. I also love the idea of placing it in another culture, and mixing it with another language. The use of Farsi, and the Iranian music was excellent, though I actually thought there could/should have been more Farsi than there was. I think it's up to interpretation, but to me there was a sense that the use of English and Farsi represented a sort of cultural battle. Hamlet's father, in this production, was Iranian, and his mother is white. Gertrude and Claudius speak almost exclusively in English, while the ghost speaks exclusively in Farsi. Hamlet goes back and forth more than any other character. There is a note in the program that the dramatic form they are drawing from on this production is called "Ta'zieh," which translates literally as "to mourn." So in a way, for Hamlet, speaking Farsi is his way of mourning his father, as is engaging the the work of the players (which is also entirely in Farsi). Along those lines, Ophelia speaks almost exclusively in Farsi in the Mad scene. On the other side is Claudius, who is cold and corrupt, and speaks only in English. Then, in the end, Fortinbras, a white Norwegian, takes the crown. The Persian culture and self-rule has been lost through corruption and an abandonment of their own culture.
I found all of this fascinating. Unfortunately, however, underneath these conceptual ideas was a production that was actually fairly bland. The pacing was a bit plodding, and the staging wasn't especially dynamic. I also felt there were a lot of weak performances. Arian Moayed was the strongest in the cast, I think, but even he didn't do anything particularly inventive with the role. It was a believable and somewhat nuanced performance, but not a particularly fresh or exciting one. I usually find Sherie Rene Scott pretty grating as an actress in general, but here I actually thought she brought some lovely subtlety to the role that the other actors lacked. The actress who played Ophelia was also pretty good, though her "o what a noble mind" speech was a bit underwhelming.
The rest, I found to be very weak. I didn't like the Claudius, the Polonius, the Horatio (Micah Stock) or the Laertes. Lots of gross overacting, especially from Laertes, who was painful to watch. In a larger space, it might not have been as noticeable. They also tended to really linger on the text, speaking each word with exaggerated slowness. I imagine they thought it would be clearer that way, but it seemed to disconnect them from the thought, making it actually feel more muddled. I'm sure the director is also largely at fault for most of this. Though there were some moments of creative direction that I thought worked very well. I also thought the trimming and re-arranging of some of the scenes worked well.
Like I said, a very mixed bag. I'd say it's worth a visit if you have the time and money, and you like seeing Shakespeare with a cultural twist.
GreasedLightning
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/11/14
#5Sheen Center's HAMLET
Posted: 5/21/17 at 7:36pm
Great review, thanks so much for the report! Sounds pretty underwhelming.
#6Sheen Center's HAMLET
Posted: 5/21/17 at 7:51pm
GreasedLightning said: "Great review, thanks so much for the report! Sounds pretty underwhelming. "
But I mean, if you want to see it, don't let me dissuade you. You know how it is with theatre, on this board especially. Opinions can be all over the map. You may love it. And there were things about it that I really enjoyed.
