Mary and I recently (last night) attended a showing of Shakespeare on the Common's performance of "Hamlet".
Gotta say, this is my favourite of the Bard's works, so I was definitely looking forward to it.
To preface, I've never actually seen any of Shakespeare's works on stage by a professional company, so this was, indeed, a first.
I have, in fact, never seen Hamlet on stage at all. My only performance experience with the Bard was a college-company production of... it was either Twelfth Night or As You Like It (it was quite some time ago, and the comedies tend to run a bit in my head, to be honest).
So the entirety of my experience with Hamlet was via the written form (such an elegantly-written play) and the few movie versions I've seen (Mel Gibson's and Sir Olivier's primarily).
It was performed by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, which has been performing the Bard's works on the Common for free for a decade now (why oh why didn't I go see them earlier?!).
We decided to get there "early" and camp out with a picnic dinner, so we hopped the Red Line at around 5:30 (it was an 8pm curtain) and got to the common around 6:15-6:30.
It was already pretty packed and we obviously should have gotten there earlier.
We spread our blanket about 200-300 feet back from the stage in the "high seat" area, figuring the blocking effect of the higher beach chairs would be mitigated by the closer placement (the "low seat" area was twice as full). I'm not sure whether it was a good call or not, as we spent a good deal of time bobbing our heads back and forth as the actors moved around (thank god about 1/4 of the scenes were on the second level of the stage), but I think we would have lost some detail if we were twice as far back.
Anyway, after a quick meal of deli sandwiches and pretzels, we settled to some people watching (Mary's past-time), cloud watching (mine) and several evil games of Gin Rummy.
I say evil because the cards were clearly cursed. I don't know how else to explain Mary's near total domination, as I am clearly far more skilled, intelligent, and let's be honest, dead-sexy than her.
After a brief drizzle (we barely felt it), the lights went down and the show started.
I won't go into plot details (don't want to spoil it for anyone!), but suffice to say that it was truly an amazing show. They'd gone with a semi-modern look to it: rifles and modern uniforms on the soldiers, fashions that danced between the 20's and the 90's on the rest of the characters.
The actors/characters that stood out to me:
Hamlet - But of course. Hard to have a good showing of Hamlet without a good lead. This guy had real range and was emoting very clearly (we could feel it even back where we were). His speech had a good cadence as well, and he made interesting choices of inflection and emphasis that changed the meaning of several of the lines in interesting ways. Of course, that could be due as much or more to the director, but the result remains the same.
The costume choices for the character were even good, as his look changed as his mood (both actual and portrayed for the other characters) did.
The actor has apparently had some small movie and TV roles as well, so I imagine he'll become a pretty well-known quantity someday soon, if this performance was any indicator.
The Ghost/The Player - Same actor for both parts. He was clearly chosen for his powerful and resonant voice, which he used to amazing and fairly unearthly effect.
As an aside, Mary disliked the use of a physically-present actor in the role of the The Ghost (as opposed to an off-stage voice, which they seemed to be leaning towards in Ghost's first appearance in scene 1). She'd apparently seen it done the latter way prior and liked it, making the line between tangible reality and things occurring in Hamlet's mind more blurred. It's an interesting take, and I wouldn't mind seeing it (I like blurred reality in my stories), but I rather like the way they handled it in this performance.
I think you lose something of the impact of a cowering and overwhelmed Hamlet, if he's cowering before nothing, instead of at the feet of a 7-foot-tall, unearthly visage.
Polonius - Another great performance here. The actor had just the right mix of buffoon and learned man, and served as a spot-on foil to Hamlet in their multiple back-and-forth scenes. This is important, I think, as I find the Polonius character to be one of the key characters in the play (after Hamlet himself, obviously).
Horatio - I really liked the actor who played this part. He played it with an understated manner and worked in more trepidation than I recall the character generally having. His voice was also the most fascinating to me, as it had an interesting timbre and character that reminded me of a TV or movie actor I know but cannot place the name of. I keep wanting to say Brad Dourif, but I know that's not it.
Aha! Jeffrey Combs! God I love IMDB... Yeah, the actor who played Horatio had a voice that heavily reminded me of Jeffrey Combs' voice, which I've always found fascinating.
I know I keep going on about voices, but given our seating, it was one of the more salient features of the performance for us.
So yes, a very good performance on his part.
The Queen - The actress here played a good balance between bewildered, honest mother and royal dilettante, with just a dash of conniver thrown in. Her terror in the bedroom scene was so convincing that I am surprised cops didn't rush to the Common to see what all the screaming was about.
As to the other actors/parts, there were no bad performances amongst the lead cast. The King was quite well-done, and his moment of regret in the prayer scene was quite convincing. Ophelia was well-played, and, honestly, made me wish I was sitting far closer (she played her last several scenes in a bra and slip, to denote her madness, including the drowning scene; I approve, for artistic reasons, of course).
As I noted above the director/actors made some very interesting choices when it came to cadence, tone and inflection with the lines, that had a fascinating, and occasionally startling-funny impact on the meaning. I really like where they went with it (even the few add-in lines, often there for purely comedic effect).
In addition, the staging and scenery itself were quite interesting. They went with a two-level stage with quite sparse decoration and abundant use of mood lighting to convey anything from a festive hall to a dreary and haunted balcony.
The other thing we thought was quite cool was that they had a small pool running the entire length of the front of the stage. Due to our angle, we didn't even realize it was there until Hamlet dove in for the first time (based on the reactions of those around us, we were far from alone).
Of course, not knowing about the pool made the diving scene (the first conversation he has with Polonius) all the more amusing and interesting, as Hamlet walked onto stage wearing an old-timey one-piece bathing suit, water wings, goggles and carrying an inflatable raft. Truly, he appeared mad ;)
The show ended to thunderous and well-deserved applause. And was well-worth the cost (free, plus 12 bucks in donations, T fare for two and dinner). I was simply astounded. Quite good.
When we see next year's show (they have not announced which play as yet, that I can tell), we'll make sure to do two things:
1) Get there earlier. If we can arrive by 5-5:30, I think our seats will be far closer, which will only be a bonus. I'm not complaining about our seats this time out, as I still really enjoyed the show, but closer seating can only improve the experience.
2) Bring seating, or rent it from the show. Not having actual seats was a BIG mistake. It was a four hour performance, from start to end (with intermission), and after sitting on the hard ground for that long, we both had backaches and, frankly, rather uncomfortable posteriors. It's a mark of how good the performance was though that I don't think either of us even noticed the discomfort until the third hour.
Anyway, that's about it. Long enough I guess.
If you happened to have seen Hamlet on the Common, or another performance of Hamlet somewhere else, let me know. I'd love to hear your take on it!
Posted by Campbell at August 4, 2005 11:45 AM