Hamlet
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Cititour.com Review
Full disclosure: Many Shakespeare scholars (and lovers) consider “Hamlet” the greatest of his so-called tragedies. I place it firmly in the category of “problem plays.” Rarely have I understood why the title character can’t find a simpler, more effective way of exacting revenge on his murderous uncle (who killed his brother/Hamlet’s father) than feigning madness, which ultimately leads to the unnecessary deaths of almost everyone else he loves! And why does he have to talk so much while doing it!
If Kenny Leon’s new production for the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park (the final major offering in the Delacorte Theatre before a much-needed renovation) doesn’t solve my main issue, the extraordinary caliber of acting on display here – especially by Ato Blankson-Wood in the title role -- makes this production anything but rotten!
Indeed, the Bard’s words land trippingly on the tongue of Blankson-Wood, who handles each of the character’s many monologues and soliloquies with such verbal dexterity and depth of feeling that you may feel like you’re even hearing “To Be or Not to Be” for the first time. Admittedly, Blankson-Wood may have had a decade of “practice” with “What a Piece of Work is Man,” since he sang it for over a year in the Broadway revival of “Hair,” but the power and poetry of that speech registers here like never before.
His equivocation over whether to kill his villainous uncle/stepdad Claudius – commandingly played by the peerless John Douglas Thompson – when he has the chance because Claudius is in seeming repentance to God (and would therefore go to heaven) somehow makes perfect sense this time. (It helps that Thompson, to his credit, seems sincere – until he’s not!)
Hamlet’s bedroom confrontation with his mother, the regal, slightly icy Gertrude (beautifully etched by Lorraine Toussaint) is utterly heartbreaking -- especially since Blankson-Wood lets us know he’s forever a mama’s boy, no matter what she’s done. (This scene also marks the only time I think I’ve ever felt bad that Hamlet kills the meddling, foolish Polonius, since I found Daniel Pearce – dressed by Jessica Jahn as an old-fashioned Southern lawyer – to be remarkably entertaining!)
Worse still, Hamlet’s seemingly out-of-the-blue, almost feral attack on the feisty, smart Ophelia (very well played by the gorgeous -- and gorgeous-voiced -- Solea Pfeiffer), commanding her over and over to go to a nunnery, is quite terrifying. As a result, her eventual madness and sadness – caused both by Hamlet’s rejection and the death of her father – feels like an appropriate, almost inevitable reaction, especially in Pfeiffer’s moving portrayal.
As memorable as these moments are, Leon’s production – hampered in large part by Beowulf Borrit’s awkward unit set– tends to lurch from set piece to set piece. Doors open, doors close, but there’s little flow. In addition, Leon has cut some of the text, including the original political subplot about the invasion of Denmark, which shortens the show (to just under three hours) -- but the trimming also deprives audiences of some context. I’m also not sure where we’re supposed to be (does Georgia now have a King and Queen), which is always a demerit in my book.
Further, in comparison to other recent productions, I think Leon has given short psychological shrift to such characters as Hamlet’s bff Horatio (an oddly costumed Warner Miller) and childhood chums Rosencrantz (Michael Winter) and Guildenstern (Brandon Gill). Still, the comic genius Greg Hildreth does so much with the small role of the Gravedigger and Tyrone Mitchell Henderson gets so many laughs as an unbelievably fey Osric that you are reminded about the old saying about “no small parts, only small actors.”
Still, “Hamlet” ultimately lives and dies (well, spoiler alert, he dies) by the actor in the title role and Blankson-Wood rightly earns his crown!
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://publictheater.org
Open/Close Dates
Opening 6/28/2023
Closing 8/6/2023
Theatre Info
Delacorte Theater
Central Park (81st St & CPW or 79th St & Fifth Av)
New York, NY
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