Review: BEDLAM'S HAMLET at 4th Wall Theatre

HAMLET’s text is likely 426 years old, distinguished as Shakespeare’s longest play, and has over thirty characters. It is also THE most well-known script of Shakespeare’s, with folks running around the streets able to quote several of the passages by heart at a moment’s notice. It contains some of the best words the Bard ever cranked out, and is considered by and large the foremost tragic play of Western literature. Actors dream of playing the Prince of Denmark, Gertrude, Ophelia, Claudius, Horatio, and Laertes. And for some unfathomable reason, 4th Wall Theatre Company has decided they should do a stripped-down four-person production that includes MOST all of the text. Without any sets, practically no costumes, and allowing the actors to run around the entire theater to connect with the audience. They constantly break the fourth wall that seems to be in the company’s very name! It’s a tall order, and somehow this production of the Bedlam company’s adaptation and staging works, and gives us some of the best acting in Houston you will ever see. And it’s all right in front of you, and at times, sitting in the next chair! To see or not to see this regional premiere of BEDLAM’S HAMLET is hardly even a question to base a soliloquy on.  

Eric Tucker of the Bedlam Theatre Company in New York originally came up with this version, often cited as BEDLAM’S HAMLET, and Kim Tobin-Lehl is at the helm to recreate it for 4th Wall. It has an energy that this company always seems to have. HAMLET is a relentlessly dark play, but here Kim inserts light moments and toys with the idea that the actors should have a sense of creative theatricality around them. They are playing this piece! This is still an artful tragedy of epic renown, but it has a good clip in its pace, and everyone seems to be onboard to move it all along with inventive flourishes. It’s a train hurtling into a dead-end tunnel, but the party rages on inside the cars until we get there.  

Three of the actors take on multiple roles, often the entire family lineage of these characters, and only mark them with a gesture, a pair of glasses, or a hat to differentiate them. Christy Watkins plays all the female parts, including Ophelia, Gertrude, and then many of the male roles, all in breakneck sequence, often back to back. She has to be Hamlet’s suicidal lover and overbearing mother, and keep the emotions and narrative arc straight for the audience. Then there is Philip Lehl, who takes on Polonius, Laertes, Horatio, and others! He has to fight with swords, dole out fatherly advice, and be Hamlet’s Best Friend, often in the same scene. Shakespearean acting legend Philip Hays of Classical Theatre Company renown does Claudius, Rosencrantz, and a host of others as well. His Claudius is one of the best I have ever seen! It’s all mind-boggling that these three can manage to put themselves into an acting blender and make it all make sense narratively and emotionally. Multiple Shakespeare roles for three solid hours? Color me terrified, but they take it all on and make it look almost effortless. Of the three, Phillip Hays is the best at marking who is who with his body, tone of voice, or delivery. Philip Lehl goes a bit more subtle, and he plays everything earnestly in his own vocal style. Christy Watkins rests in the middle of these two deliveries, and her freakouts as Ophelia and Gertrude are epic. 

And what of Wesley Whitson as Hamlet, perhaps the most challenging role in the entire canon of Shakespeare’s works? He is age-appropriate and fiercely dives into the madness for the first two-thirds, and then becomes steely and predatory for the final acts. Wesley makes this part his own and uses so much of himself that it feels revelatory. He’s never been an actor afraid to turn up the volume, but I would argue even when he plays quietly, there is an intensity that is undeniable. You can’t take your eyes off him, and this is his crowning achievement in a run of Shakespeare roles that have proven already masterful. Houston, meet your new king of iambic pentameter! He takes passages that we all know by heart and maps them in his own beat in a spellbinding way - always on the precipice of rage, tears, or steely revenge. 

Okay, so I am a fan of this production, and I have come here to praise this Hamlet and not to bury it. But I fear I may be over-flowery in my acclamation, and some may think I deem this to be perfection. It is certainly close. But sweet are the uses of adversity, and sometimes the play stumbles over its own strengths. These players move so quickly through the text that it can blur lines and who is saying them. The audience has to adapt to their quick-leaning tempo, and none of them ever relishes any passage for very long. It makes the play move, but it can also lose some bits here and there. Sometimes the whiplash of the character switch-outs gets hard to discern, and the more you know the text, the better you will be, although I doubt any will be wholly lost. Also, the second act is done almost entirely in four chairs next to each other. This is inventive, but there are moments when it feels like it is far too clever a trick than a real moment. Sometimes the ingenious staging is just intelligent alone.  

The show technically is stripped down to almost bare walls and chairs, but I do admire the work of lighting designer Christina Giannelli. She has admirable solutions up her sleeve that show off a spectrum of light and dark that reflect the text and tone perfectly. Alan Brincks must be a masterful fight director, because the swordplay here is really well done. Sound design from Robert Leslie Meek is quite accomplished, too. The production quality is high, despite the often simple nature of the design elements. 

I adored this interpretation of HAMLET, and it truly is a magnificent achievement of acting and directing on the part of the cast and Kim Tobin Lehl, with inspiration from Eric Tucker’s original vision. BEDLAM’S HAMLET is something to behold, and even those who usually find Shakespeare tedious will be engaged. The breakneck pacing and theatrical creativity are refreshing, but it may make those not as solid with the narrative a little lost in certain passages. But this Hamlet, above all, is true to itself. These four take arms against a sea of trouble and pass every acting challenge thrown at them. It’s a marvel and a must-see for fans of HAMLET.