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| Michael Benz as Hamlet |
By Joe Straw
Two women, wearing black, were having a great time at the theatre the
night I went. They were sitting in front
of me and every time there was a recognizable quote from Hamlet they turned
toward each other, smiled, and nodded affirmatively. And then they directed their attention back
toward the stage and continued their observation of the performance. - The Narrator.
The Broad Stage is a very nice place to go. There is always free parking without arriving
too early. The atmosphere is always
friendly and everyone at the door greets you like a long lost friend.
KCRW presents Hamlet by William Shakespeare and directed by Bill Buckhurst. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre is back in town doing what they do best.
Tonight I was fortunate to be invited back to The Eli
and Edythe Broad Stage to witness the performance.
Oddly enough, the set, Designed by Jonathan Fensom, was similar
to The Comedy of Errors set, I had seen last year. It was slightly different but the same shell
of a space.
Paul Russell, Lighting Designer, decided to keep the house
lights up during the performance, for reasons unknown to me. The actors, in this light, arrive on set in
character, jovial, and in pursuit of a lighthearted objective. They prepare themselves by adding wardrobe accouterments
enhancing the finishing touches of their costumes also designed by Jonathan
Fensom.
When the last belt was tightened, and the last boot
strapped, the actors grabbed an instrument and played away at a 17th
Century English traditional song “A Begging I Will Go.” A diapason sound fit
the occasion and certainly it is a song for pugnacious actors. Notwithstanding “Begging” is a lighthearted number
that introduces us to the play, Hamlet. And
it worked quite nicely, a very light touch of an introduction, for a play that
we all know ends in a horrific bloodbath.
The play starts with a whisper, an underscore of things that
happen late in the night. Two guards Marcellus
(Peter Bray) and Bernardo (Matthew Romain) wait for the moments when an
eidolon, the dead King Hamlet’s apparition, appears around the guarded walls of
the castle at Elsinore.
Frightened, and chilled from the cold night air, the two are
not willing to hold their tongue and so Marcellus and Bernardo tell Horatio (Tom
Lawrence) of the sights they have repeatedly seen on a series of nights. And just when they are telling the tale, the
apparition appears stalking through the castle walls. They cry out to the ghost but the ghost
ignores them as he passes from room to room. Horatio believes the ghost will only talk to
Hamlet and runs to tell Hamlet the news.
Meanwhile, the iniquitous Claudius (Dickson Tyrrell) is now the
new king. He is espoused to Hamlet’s
mother, Gertrude (Miranda Foster), in a hastily arranged marriage not two months
after the sudden and unexpected demise of his brother, King Hamlet (Dickson
Tyrrell).
Hamlet (Michael Benz), the son, laments the passing of this
father. Claudius, happy to occupy the
throne, wastes no time evaluating Hamlet’s imponderable mourning.
“But you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, …
…but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; ‘ tis unmanly grief;” - King
With his manhood questioned Hamlet feels he must bide his time
but he is not too happy about the outcome.
“With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good;
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.” - Hamlet
Claudius must not feel he is king. Certainly his ill-fitting wardrobe does not give
him a regal appearance and he lacks the backbone and fortitude to stand up to
his enemies, known or unknown. He
worries about the invasion of the Norwegian crown prince Fortinbras and hastily
sends his ambassadors to stop the invasion.
Horatio anxiously tells Hamlet he has seen his father, has
seen his face, knows it is he, and invites Hamlet up to the guard post at night
to see the vision they have all experienced.
Meanwhile Polonius (Christopher Saul), lord chamberlain, has
a broken heart. His children have grown,
and with time running out, Polonius imparts his wisdom to his son Laertes
(Matthew Romain) before Laertes leaves for France. And after this impassioned
farewell Polonius turns his sight on Ophelia (Carlyss Peer) and warns his
daughter Ophelia that she must be cautious with Hamlet.
“Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate
Than a command to parley.” – Polonius
Hamlet’s hamartia is his youth as he rushes to the guard
post to see his father. Hamlet, incurious, when he arrives, speaks with Horatio
and Marcellus. Suddenly the ghost
appears and beckons Hamlet to follow him.
Horatio and Marcellus tremble at the repercussions and hold Hamlet until
he breaks free.
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” - Marcellus
The ghost leads him to another part of the castle with
Hamlet pleading for him to speak only to find that it is not his father. (I am
not your father.)
“I am thy father’s spirit,
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,” – Ghost
(Okay, a technicality.)
The ghost tells Hamlet that he is doomed because of what he
did in his life. (Just when you thought he was the good king!) The ghost
imparts his wisdom of the afterlife without going into specifics, which is all
humorously articulated in the telling.
And then the ghost tells Hamlet he was murdered by his
brother Claudius and gives his the details of his murder. He seeks his son to revenge his death.
“Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” – Ghost
Not wanting to leave Hamlet without fond remembrances the
ghost embraces Hamlet with an unnatural love, and speaks.
“Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember
me.” - Ghost
This is the moment Hamlet makes up his mind about his uncle
and his mother.
“O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
…So, uncle, there you are. Now
to my word;
It is ‘Adieu, adieu! Remember
me.’
I have sworn’t “ - Hamlet
Hamlet makes a decision after he has secured the truth. Revenge
is a seed planted in fertile ground. And
Hamlet has that seedling sprouting many evil machinations. It will never end until the end is finished
and done with ‘til the last line is spoken and the last breath is taken. There
is no turning back once you have sworn to it.
“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,” – Hamlet
“He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.” – Hamlet
Hamlet asks his friends to swear they will never mention
what they have seen this night.
“Never to speak of this that you have seen,
Swear by my sword.” – Hamlet
And repeatedly the ghost asks them to swear.
“Swear!” – Ghost
Repeatedly.
“Swear!” – Ghost
So aggravated by the ghost, Hamlet moves from place to place
to avoid his constant verbal barrage until he has had enough.
“Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!” – Hamlet
Later Polonius wants Reynaldo to go to Paris, find out what
Danes are there, and more or less to check up on his son, Laertes.
Ophelia enters and tells Polonius that Hamlet is acting very
peculiar and Polonius goes to the Queen to speak to her on Hamlet’s condition.
The whispers continue around the castle as the King and
Queen have summoned Rosencrantz (Peter Bray) and Guildenstern (Matthew Romain),
Hamlet friends, to enlist their help in discovering Hamlet’s ailment and
strange behaviors.
“… and now remains
That we find out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say, the cause of the defect,
For this effect defective come by cause:
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus,” – Polonius to Queen
A befuddled Polonius tells the King and Queen that he will
speak to Hamlet. Hamlet, at this point,
seems off his rocker. Polonius thinks, “he is far gone, far gone”.
Moments later, and sane again, Hamlets happily greets his childhood
friends but with reservations. He asks Rosencratz and Guildenstern what is
their purpose at Elsinore. The
sycophants feign innocence but then tell Hamlet they were sent for. So they are, in fact, spies and it doesn’t
take Hamlet long to catch on despite what Rosencrantz tells him.
“My lord, there was not such stuff in my thoughts.” – Rosencrantz to
Hamlet
Hamlet has started the execution of his play with the actors
arriving. A casting session begins with
Hamlet praising the actors, wanting to hear their recent works. Polonius is
there to assist in the casting and after the auditions are complete Hamlet
sends him off with the rest of the actors.
But, in the meantime, Hamlet grabs the first player (Dickson Tyrrell)
and secretly tells him that he will have more for him to act.
“could for a need, study speech of some dozen
or sixteen lines, which I would set down and
insert in’t, could you not?” – Hamlet to First Player
Hamlet dismisses his actors and laments about what he about
to do in front of the King and Queen.
“O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I” – Hamlet
…Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what as ass am I?” – Hamlet
Hamlet performs the play to observe the looks of the King,
to see if the play speaks hard to the truth.
The moment of truth sends a dagger swiftly into the conscious heart of a
traitorous king.
There are a lot of marvelous moments in Bill Buckhurst’s version of Hamlet. Everyone has his or her own
ideas of how this play should be played and I admired Buckhurst take. It is fun and too marvelous for words. The play within a play works to perfection
and the discovery of the King and Queen’s expression after the revelation was brilliant.
There are nearly thirty characters in this play but we get a
scaled down version of eight playing a variety of roles and succeeding
marvelously.
Michael Benz
plays Hamlet. Young and energetic Benz
flies from place to place to capture the spirit of the role. As the character this Hamlet was soft, not
intellectual in the ways that maturity would make him. And because of his youth, Hamlet seems to
accept all information as truth, there was not a point where there was
disbelief, wanting more information, and then deciding that his father was
indeed waiting for him. He recklessly takes arms against of sea of trouble
without thinking through the consequences.
And his actions are fraught with mistakes and without remorse, which
leads him to his tragic fate. And, where is the quintessential moment that drives
him over the edge in his pursuit? Is it
because the ghost tells him so? Benz has
an interesting characterization of the role.
As the prince the relationship between royalties and other member of his
entourage was not distinct, not specific.
Hamlet’s relationship with his ghostly father – King v Prince, or father
v son (slightly different). He treats
them without a royal regard, which I found interesting. What does it mean when a mortal confronts
ghost that is his father? This can’t be
an everyday occurrence even for the Prince Hamlet. Could it possibly be that he
thinks he is the rightful heir to the throne? He must think so. He kills Polonius with little regard, (opps)
and throws a curtain on him with very little affection. This prince was ill suited for the throne,
possibly something lacking in his character to wear the crown. And if his
objective were to be the King, he would have been a bad one because he gets
lost in the details of his revenge.
Christopher Saul
was marvelous as Polonius. His art and craft was impeccable. Not a wasted movement and specific in his
objective. It is so much fun to watch an
actor with this kind of talent, watching each role filled with so much life. This
is certainly an inspired performance and one not to miss. Saul also played
Francisco, Player, First Gravedigger and the Priest and excelled at all.
Dickson Tyrrell played
Claudius, the King. As Claudius he seems ill suited to have the crown. Nothing
fits. The clothes he wears, the decisions he makes. His actions are precautionary rather than
decisive and affirmative. And he sure is sneaky! Tyrrell is wonderfully offbeat
in this characterization of Claudius. He also plays Ghost, First Player, and
the Player King.
Carlyss Peer
plays Ophelia. There was something
chilling about her, her relationship with her brother, and her deep admiration
in a man who seemed devilish at times. Finding a way through that relationship,
tugged on her mental and physical securities. She battles with her father and brother
that tells her she is not good enough for Hamlet. (It’s no wonder this woman in
love is mentally unstable.) Ophelia’s
appearance indicates that she was not internally affected by the events around
her. And yet, she takes chances with her life, purposefully falling into the
water and floats downstream in a simple act of suicide. And as quiet as that event may have been, she
waits for the inevitable events of gravity to drag her down to the murky
bottom. Peer also plays Voltemand. Wonderful
job!
Miranda Foster
plays Gertrude, the Queen. As the character she believes she has no choice but to
let the men in her life change the course of her life. But Gertrude has strength. After all she was the Queen at one time. Hard times have befallen her but she has the
ability to rise to the occasions and not be so darn weak. Natheless, it was a
very fine performance.
Tom Lawrence was
quite marvelous as Horatio. He is in
touch with his instrument and was at ease on stage. As Horatio he has a gentle smile and a way that
would convince us that he is Hamlet’s trusted friend. He is there for the
Hamlet’s bitter end and requested, by Hamlet, not to drink the poison but to
tell the story. Lawrence plays Reynaldo
and Captain as well. And we are all better for it. Nice job!
Peter Bray plays
Rosencrantz, Marcellus, Osric, and Prince Fortinbras all with impish dexterity,
a slight smile, and a flit of the wrist.
Bray has a commanding presence and does a magnificent job.
Matthew Romain
plays Laertes, Bernardo, Guildenstern, and Lucianus. Laertes is a strong
character that did not learn from his father.
Actually, he has questionable characteristics. At least his father believes so. He flies off the handle without examining and
blames Hamlet for the death of his father and his sister. Romain played Laertes with honor, with a
backbone, and with the belief that he must stand for the honor of his father
and his sister. With his head held high he rolled with honor to defend the only
life he has known.
Other members of this fine cast and crew are:
Dominic Dromgoole
– artistic director, director
Tom Bird and Sacha Milroy – executive producers
Laura Forrest-Hay – original score
Bill Barclay – composer and arranger
Sian Williams – choreographer
Kevin McCurdy – fight director
Giles Block – Globe associate – text
Glynn MacDonald – globe associate – movement
Martin McKellan – voice and dialect
Alison Convey – assistant director
Chloe Stephens – assistant choreographer
Ng Choon Ping – assistant choreographer
Paul Russell and Dave McEvoy – production managers
Wills – technical manager
Marion Marrs – company manager
2Luck Concepts, Eleanor Oldham & John Luckacovic – USA
general management
Claire Godden, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, UK general
management
Support for Shakespeare at The Broad is generously provided
by Linda and Michael Keston.
Through November 25, 2012
Run! Take a friend
named Yorick. You will both laugh the
night away.
