Not To Be

The ultimate bummer:  Finding out about a unique take on Hamlet being done locally...after the show has closed.  That's the position in which I find myself for this post.  The School of the Arts, a public high school in Rochester, NY, recently staged a production of Hamlet.  I discovered this too late to be able to attend the show.  It's another one of life's little disappointments.

In communications with staff members at the school about their production, I learned about their take on Shakespeare's original.  The play was set in 1929, during the Prohibition Era.  According to their press release, it explored "the similarities between 17th century Danish royalty and the 'perceived' aura of 'royalty' inherent among organized criminals in the 1920s."  According to the director, Edward Meyers,

"Staging the production in another century points out the timelessness of Shakespeare's work and just how well his ideas have transcended time, geographical location and cultures.  Shakespeare's strong characters and complex plot elements are universally appealing even when put in the historical context of gangsters and organized crime."

If only I had been able to see it live....

Hamlet a la Classic Rock?

Here's one that will require further investigation.  As I was reading Who I Am:  A Memoir by Pete Townshend, I came across the following paragraph regarding the Who's rock opera, Tommy.

"One of the first changes Ken (Russell, the film's director) wanted to make was to nudge the story towards a kind of modern version of Hamlet, with the lover of Tommy's mother killing Tommy's father--rather than the other way round, as on the album.  I was concerned about this at first, then I saw that the dead father would become a symbol for Tommy of the 'Master' he sees in his dreams."

This statement will be enough to add viewing the film to the ever-growing Hamlet to-do list.  Check back sometime in the future for further thoughts.

A Shakespeare-ience

The title alone would have been enough:  Shakespeare-apalooza-rama!  Seeing that Hamlet was included in the program made it a definite stop.

The dramatic experience was presented by Dream/Visualize/Create, an "organization of high school students and local artists devoted to producing socially relevant theatrical performances in the Rochester (NY) community."  The location for the extravaganza was MuCCC, a small black box-esque facility in Rochester.  It was both my first exposure to DVC and my first visit to MuCCC, but hopefully not my last of either.

The production combined several sources into a roughly 90-minute piece.  The first act opened with a prologue from Kill Shakespeare, a graphic novel series created by Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col.  The speech was accompanied by projections of art from the books.  Following that were several monologues, including the "O, what a rogue and peasant slave" soliloquy to whet one's Hamlet appetite.  Another excerpt from Kill Shakespeare led into the first act's major portion.

The bulk of the first act was a very compressed version of Hamlet entitled Hamlet, Approximately.  It is based on The Quick Hamlet by Philip K. Frey.  The play takes all five acts of Hamlet and reduces them into an approximate 30-minute running time.  This was done primarily through heavily-edited dialogue.  All of Shakespeare's original characters appeared, even Fortinbras, who often is omitted from full-fledged productions.  The action moved quickly, as one might expect.  While many, many lines were dropped, the plot of the play remained intact and completely comprehensible.

The actors, high school and college students, did an excellent job.  It was not a polished production, but it was a sincere effort to present Hamlet.  And it was enjoyable.  It was heartening to see such a young group work to stage a difficult play, to do it well and to exude enjoyment while doing it.  Yet another generation caught under the spell of Hamlet.  The applause at the end of act one was well deserved!

As the stage was being transformed during the intermission, the surplus of plastic sheeting covering the stage was a hint of what was to come.  While the sight of it did provide a visual rhyme, it was when the instrumental theme from the TV series Dexter played over the sound system that I laughed aloud.

Then came the second act.  Entitled ShakesBLOOD, it was an amusing mish-mash of Shakespearean works combined with quite a lot of blood.  It was heavily steeped in MacBeth, although Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus and a hungry bear were included.  Even Hamlet, with his "To be or not to be" soliloquy, managed to make an appearance.  It was difficult to figure out what was going on with this work, other than an excuse to have some fun with Shakespeare while throwing blood about and occasionally dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller.  It was moderate entertainment done reasonably well.

The Shakespeare-apalooza-rama was an interesting addition to my Hamlet travels, indeed "an experience," as one audience member put it at the play's conclusion.  I will close this post with an extended quote from the play's director, which I believe sums up exceedingly well the benefit of this particular artistic endeavor, as well as any performance of Shakespeare's works.

"[How] do you perform Hamlet...the right way?  There are simply too many variables to consider--the production's concept, the skill level of the actors, the translation of the play being used, the cuts we have oh-so-pretentiously decided needed to be made, our interpretation of what Shakespeare actually intended in each scene, each line, each word.

Maybe it is enough that a production need only do one thing right:  take Shakespeare's centuries old text, dig in deep enough to find its heart, and lay it out on stage in such a way as to make a modern audience understand and appreciate [its]breadth and depth.  To make it mean something."

Amen to that!

The Other Side Of The Coin

The second evening in Oswego was a production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.  This was the first time I had seen the play performed live.  As it turned out, it was one of the best experiences I have had at a live theatre production.

Being able to see the play in repertory was a tremendous opportunity.  Entering the theatre for the second consecutive night, it was as if I were back home.  Seeing the actors back on the same set was as seeing old friends again.  (Seeing audience members in the same seats as on the previous evening heightened that sensation.)  That initial impression started the play on great footing.  It got only better.

Just as with their first appearance, Rosencrantz & Guildernstern appeared flipping coins.  The beauty of live drama, though, is the unexpected.  One tossed coin landed on edge and rolled across the set and off into the wings.  From offstage, "Heads!"  It was the first of what became two and one half hours of laughs.

Staging the play in repertory with Hamlet allowed for considerable allusion to and overlap with the previous evening's performance.  For instance, when Hamlet repeated the phrase "except my life" to Polonius, he grabbed Polonius' face, puckered Polonius' lips and forced him to mouth the phrase on the third recitation.  This action appeared in both plays.  Several other times such "Do You Remember?" moments appeared:  Hamlet running off stage yelling "Buzz Buzz," Polonius' bloody death, and the final death scene were all blocked as they had been the previous evening.  Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy was performed as previously with one exception--it was done in silence, literally.  The actor's mouth moved, but no sound emanated from it.  He was not the main character, so why would we want to hear him?

While Hamlet was oddly (and atypically) humorous, R&G was non-stop humor.  Much of this was due to the excellent acting.  The three main characters in the play, Rosencrantz, Guildernstern and the Player, were fantastic.  Rosencrantz and Guildernstern's ability to riff off each other was exceptional; it appeared as if these characters spent quite a bit of time together.

One scene was particularly noteworthy.  In Stoppard's original play, Act I ends as Hamlet sees Rosencrantz and Guildernstern at Elsinore for the first time.  At that point, the curtain drops for an intermission.  It rises approximately 134 lines of Hamlet later, just as the players are entering.  This particular performance had only one intermission.  At the point of the original curtain drop, it was as if someone hit the fast forward button.  The sound system played a greatly accelerated version of the discussion from Hamlet as the three characters moved quickly and mouthed the lines.  The blocking was the same as the previous night's scene.  As soon as they hit the appropriate place in the dialogue, the sound stopped and they picked up at the beginning of Act II.  It was incredibly inventive and very well done by the actors.

There was one change to the set.  The hole in the floor did not function as a grave this evening; rather it served as the actors' entrance and exit points for three crates, which replaced the barrels of the original play.  The pirate fight scene, complete with feathers and cannon balls (one in "slow motion"), was hilarious.

For a play that was as humorous as this one, the ending scenes were very emotional.  When Rosencrantz and then Guildernstern are "put to sudden death," it was sad to see them go.  In fact, their departure was more sorrowful than the final scene of Hamlet, the actual tragedy.  It was a sign that the actors were sympathetic in their roles.  As pleasant as it was to welcome old friends back to the stage, it was much worse to bid them farewell.

As the play concluded, I was left with considerable respect for the actors in the troupe.  To stage either Hamlet or R&G must be difficult.  To stage them both at the same time, switching between sets of lines on consecutive nights, is unimaginable.  And yet, they did it and did it exceedingly well.  It was an experience the likes of which I shall not have again.

Hamlet in the Snow Belt

The long-awaited visit by The Acting Company to SUNY Oswego arrived his past week.  (See 7/9/13 post.)  It was a tremendous opportunity to see Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead performed in repertory on consecutive evenings; indeed, an occasion not to be missed.  Hamlet, the first evening's production, was excellent in all respects.

The set was very simple:  some stairs, arches, a tile floor and curtains that could be drawn as necessary.  Later, a portion of the stage was opened to serve as a grave.  The costuming was traditional Elizabethan period dress--frills, neck ruffles and even a costume for Guildenstern that looked strangely Mayflower pilgrim-esque.

The text was edited to fit into a running time of roughly two and one half hours.  Ophelia and Laertes' conversation prior to his departure for France seemed shortened.  Hamlet's directions to the players were lengthier than is typical while the dumb-show was removed entirely from the play within a play.  There were no references to pirates, and the "How all occasions..." soliloquy was removed.  The conversation between the gravediggers and Hamlet's conversation with Osric were each shortened as well.  Hamlet and Horatio's discussion of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's death was included, although earlier remarks about being "hoist with one's petar" had been removed.  All told, the editing was sensible and did not detract from the play.  In a talk-back with the cast after the show, they were asked about the editing.  The version was edited with the intent of streamlining the second half of the play and driving the action in more of a straight line.  Omission of the "How all occasions..." soliloquy was based on precedent--the First Folio.

One noteworthy aspect of the play was the high level of humor.  While I have seen many live versions of Hamlet, I cannot recall as much audience laughter as in this particular production.  The "too, too solid flesh" soliloquy was broken up with some laughs, as was the "rogue and peasant slave" soliloquy.  At times, the humor seemed to mock the scene.  For instance, when Polonius was discussing the specialties of the players, Hamlet hit his head repeatedly against a nearby wall.  It was funny but a bit over the top.  During the play within a play, Hamlet discussed country matters with Ophelia--accent on the first syllable of "country."  That particular scene was as bawdy as I recall ever having seen it.  The subject of the humor level was discussed during the talk-back.  It was a conscious decision by the cast (Hamlet in particular) and the director.  The idea was to give the audience a chance to take a breath and to enjoy some of Shakespeare's wit.  As one cast member added, injecting humor to lighten the mood made the horror that followed even more horrible.

Two scenes are worth mentioning as particularly exceptional.  The nunnery scene was very graphic, and it included Hamlet spitting into the face of Ophelia.  As Ophelia tried to leave, Polonius could be heard yelling "No."  Hamlet, even more enraged, threw back the curtains to find no one there.  The later scene depicting Ophelia's madness also was notable.  It was no minor melancholy, but rather a quite pronounced break.

There were numerous other peculiarities to this production.  The ghost (a very young one at that) announces that he was killed with hemlock, not hebanon.  When the ghost beckons Hamlet to "Swear it," he is the only one to hear it, playing up the notion of auditory hallucinations.  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter while flipping a coin, a nod to Stoppard's play the following evening.  Hamlet's deed of killing Polonius (played as a very doddering old man) was especially bloody; the sponge and water were desperately needed to wipe up the mess on Hamlet's face and arms.  When the ghost appeared in Gertrude's chamber, she was able to see it but did not let on to Hamlet that it was so.  This was revealed in the talk-back by the actress who played Gertrude, and it came (seemingly) as a surprise to the actor who played Hamlet.  Hamlet was "spent" rather than "fat" in Gertrude's estimation of his being "out of breath" during the duel.

The duel scene was well choreographed, even if the stabbing deaths were a bit obviously sword-through-armpit gags.  The play faded to black just as a very martial Fortinbras enters to assume the throne.

All in all, this was a well-acted, well-produced, very enjoyable Hamlet.  The best part was that it was only the first night of two plays.  But that is to come...