| . | 04/04/2009
Hamlet
By: Victor Gluck
Christian Camargo, Casey Biggs and Graham Hamilton in a scene from Hamlet
(Photo credit: Gerry Goodstein)
In the opening scene of the Theatre for a New Audience’s modern dress version of Hamlet, director David Esbjornson has put the first two scenes of the play side by side on the same stage: Horatio’s visit to the platform to see for himself the Ghost that has been walking at night and King Claudius’ first council meeting. It is almost as though these outdoor and indoor scenes have been intercut, to use film parlance. This cinematic juxtaposition is startling and original.
Alas, nothing else about Esbjornson’s production is as interesting or as novel. Led by Christian Camargo in the title role, this uneven, unfocused production appears to have no coherent unified interpretation nor does the acting of its Hamlet. This is particularly disappointing following Theater for a New Audience’s acclaimed, sold-out Othello which preceded it at The Duke on 42nd Street.
It is a truism in the theater that you can’t do Hamlet without a Hamlet. Unfortunately, Camargo, who also played the title role in TFANA’s Coriolanus in 2005, has no unified view of the role. He is by turns effete, brooding, antic, and physical, but this is not an interpretation but a search for one. Is he a man of action or an intellectual? Has he really lost his mind because of the murder of his father or is he only pretending? He never makes this clear. At times, it seems as if he is a different kind of Hamlet in each scene, a poor choice for such a classic role. Earlier this season he gave an impassioned performance in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, but from the evidence of both Hamlet and Coriolanus he does not seem to be able to carry a production.
Esbjornson’s hand is much in evidence with both scenes and lines rearranged, not always for any obvious reason. He has built up the role of the Priest, who usually makes a single appearance in the graveyard scene, and given the courtier Osric a role throughout the play rather than only in the last act when he brings Hamlet the challenge of the fencing match with Laertes. Fortinbras makes his usual appearance in the play’s fourth act and then fails to show up in the finale which is truncated to end with Horatio’s line, “Good night, sweet Prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
Esbjornson begins “To be or not to be,” the most famous soliloquy in dramatic literature, in total darkness with only Hamlet’s voice present. This is certainly original, but from the evidence of the production, it doesn’t work and seems like an accident of the lighting. At other times, the minimalist physical production designed by Antje Ellermann in black, white and grey includes distracting or eccentric projections and video designed by Sven Ortel that draw one’s attention away from the dramatic action.
Elizabeth Hope Clancy has dressed Hamlet in black (traditional) and almost everyone else in shades of grey or silver. At first this is amusing, creating a contrast between Hamlet’s deep mourning and the fact that everyone else has abandoned it. Then it simply becomes an end in itself, a game of how many variations of grey or silver can we find for both the men and women.
Running just under three and a half hours with two intermissions, the production feels long, and even with 15 actors the stage often seems under populated. This is probably because some of the court scenes have no extras on stage other than characters with speaking roles, for example, in the play-within-the-play scene and fencing match which concludes the tragedy.
Both Casey Biggs’ Claudius and Alyssa Bresnahan’s Gertrude seem extremely lightweight, although their high fashion designer clothes don’t help. They appear to be monarchs more interested in how they look than in how they rule. Alvin Epstein looks and sounds right as Polonius, the officious, efficient, nosy prime minister. However, he appears to be desperately trying to keep his hold on his characterization. As his daughter, Jennifer Ikeda’s Ophelia is respectable without being memorable, while Graham Hamilton as her brother Laertes is too bland to make any impression.
Ironically, one comes away from the production most remembering Tom Hammond’s serious, centered Horatio, not exactly a major player in the drama. John Christopher Jones gets all the usual laughs and more as the Gravedigger in the penultimate scene, and Jonathan Fried is fine as the Ghost of Hamlet’s father. Craig Pattison and Richard Topol are amusing as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, respectively, making them more comic and simple-minded than is usual. Distinguished actor Robert Stattel who has given acclaimed performances as Titus Andronicus, Prospero and Cymbeline is wasted as both the Priest and Player King. Ryan Quinn’s Osric is not as flamboyant as Hamlet’s sarcasm would have you believe he ought to be.
It would be a pleasure to report that New York has a world class production of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy on the boards, but such is not the case. Director David Esbjornson seems to have been more interested in working out the details of this modern day version of the play than arriving at a focused interpretation for a contemporary audience. As Hamlet, Christian Camargo is too much the chameleon to ground this production where it needs to find its center.
Hamlet (through April 12)
Theatre for a New Audience at The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 W. 42nd Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 646-223-3010 or http://www.dukeon42.org
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