BWW Reviews: Gamut/HSC HAMLET Probes Character Dysfunctions

The trouble with Shakespeare - other than convincing people to see it at all (their loss), is the length of the plays. If a director didn't hack at the source material heavily, the plays would be five hours long and a test of endurance rather than of entertainment. When a director says, "let's make it 90 minutes for schools," and is able to leave most of the generally important material intact as well as leave a coherent plot, it's close to an occasion for rejoicing. Shakespeare is intended to be heard, not read, and what students and other readers don't appreciate is that what looks like antiquated, pedantic iambic pentameter is amazingly easy to follow, without textual updating, when spoken.

That' s the gist of the "educational outreach" HAMLET performed by Gamut/Harrisburg Shakespeare Company - a short, coherent version of the saga of the Prince of Denmark, a near-operatic tragedy of lust, madness, death, destruction, and all those other good things that make Shakespeare fun to watch (you just don't get the good parts staring at a page, school students). Although director/performer Clark Nicholson admits it's a work in progress, especially in its modernization, it's certainly easy enough to follow, and it clocks in at a very reasonable time. So would a movie version - cue Olivier, Branagh, and the usual suspects, but to be honest, Shakespeare still works best on stage. For people of my generation who remember Zeffirelli's steamy ROMEO AND JULIET, it's worth reiterating that no, Shakespeare still works best on stage.

This is also a small-cast adaptation, with five actors playing all the parts, minus a gravedigger or so and some wandering courtiers. The only cast member with one part only is Ian Potter, playing Hamlet. Tara Herwig plays his mother, Queen Gertrude, as well as Rosenkrantz, while Kathryn Miller trades in her excellent Ophelia for Guildenstern and a very effective Horatio. Clark Nicholson plays both Hamlet's uncle, the current King Claudius, as well as the ghost of Hamlet's father, but he's absolutely delightful as a hayseed gravedigger with a fine ability to lob skulls about with reckless abandon. Thomas Weaver is both Polonious and Laertes, father and son, which makes it fortunate that he has no scenes against himself - though he's a fine enough actor to make giving it a try worthwhile on some other occasion.

Since the play is modernized as well as shortened significantly, without updating the language, some conceits are not as clear as they might be. Notably, the courtier Polonious, who spies on Hamlet, is intended to be Hamlet's psychiatrist. Although he wears a suit and tie and carries a notepad, it's not necessarily clear that this is a supposedly therapeutic relationship; Polonious looks more as if he's a spy who should be whispering into his watch. Director Nicholson himself questions how in a modern era it could be usual for Hamlet to carry a knife regularly, though setting the play at a hunting lodge rather than the castle, or making the setting clearly rural, would answer the question neatly. Although the issues are there, few if any seem insurmountable. It's far less outrageous than many modernizations, and it's hard to question that Hamlet needs a psychiatrist - indeed, the entire cast of characters is wildly dysfunctional. Even Horatio, who seems most normal, is an enabler by today's standards. We won't even talk about the problems of Gertrude and Claudius.

Modernization allows the sending of private messages by email and text, and the cell phone is an integral aspect of this version. It works. The only drawback is the noticeable number of audience members who rush to check their own phones when the stage phones ring recognizable ring tones, which may be a comment on how many audience members neglected to turn off their phones prior to the performance.

Costuming here is interesting; there's no doubt that it's contemporary, but it does appear to be by way of Seattle, with a nod to grunge. Black, plaid flannel, and printed tees seem the order of the day for the student-aged characters, at a castle that seems to be located at the intersection of Sleater and Kinney, and even the Queen is nearly Goth in all-black. Ophelia is the costume contrast to the rest of the cast, looking as if she's walked in from a garden party somewhere with much better weather.

The play might be considered, as Gamut considers it, an educational outreach performance designed to introduce school students to HAMLET. In fact, it's simply easily accessible, and has the virtue of brevity. While adjustments to the modernization might be an idea, as might the possibility of casting for six (at the very least to separate Polonious and Laertes), it's certainly not beneath the intelligence, or the entertainment level, of people more familiar with full versions of the play or of other of Shakespeare's works.

Now, if someone could just trim down the time on THE ICEMAN COMETH successfully...

At Gamut Theatre, Strawberry Square, Harrisburg, through March 8. Followed, logically and neatly, by the national premiere of WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET opening March 13. Tickets and more information are available at gamuttheatre.org.