Review - Hamlet

Last year, during my idNYC free-membership-phase, I had a free subscription to the Public Theater.  I enjoyed a couple of productions during my free year, and the last thing I did before it expired (due to finances, I couldn't afford to renew) was book a member ticket to Hamlet, starring Oscar Isaac.  When it was first announced, I thought, oh, I like him, that could be interesting, but I should save my money.  But when Charlayne Woodard and Ritchie Coster were announced as Gertrude and Claudius, I was in.  They, for me, made this a 'must see.'  I went earlier this week, but have seemingly been in meetings ever since.  I'm approaching brain death, but I will try to report accurately on what I've seen.  Oh, and there will probably be staging spoilers, so if you have a ticket before the show closes and you don't want to know how things shake out, you may want to stop here...

Anyway, Woodard and Coster, along with Isaac, were definitely worth the price of admission.  Was this my favorite Hamlet ever? No, probably not.  But it was interesting, for the most part, with some eye-rolling directorial nonsense thrown in.  I was mainly engaged for the nearly four-hour playing time.  On the whole, they told the story well, which is my number one ask of a play, especially Shakespeare.  Well, one scene was confusing as heck in the storytelling aspect due to some directorial nonsense, but because I know the play pretty darn well, I worked my way through it.  For someone going to their first Hamlet, I wonder if they ever figured out what was going on...

photo credit: Carol Rosegg

This is a very well-spoken Hamlet, led by the wonderful Oscar Isaac.  He has a wonderful ease with the language, keeping its heightened beauty while also making it accessible and conversational.  The famous soliloquies, most especially "to be or not to be" were really expertly done. That Isaac is charm personified is probably well-known to his film fans, but seeing that charm harnessed and put to terrifically good use on stage as the young Dane was one of my favorite parts of the evening.  I'm a big fan of charm, as you all well know, which cannot be taught or manufactured.  You either have it or you don't.  And Isaac has it.  Plus, to be shallow for just a moment, he is handsome as all heck and spends half the play clad only in his underwear.  Sigh.  Ok, moving on.  Isaac is playing a dreamy Hamlet, a boy/man who is so grieved over the loss of his father than he sees him everywhere (this is one directorial choice I enjoyed, except for that confusing scene I referenced above - both Claudius and the ghost of Hamlet's father are played by the wonderful Ritchie Coster).  The look of wonder and awe on Isaac's face whenever he is speaking with the ghost of his father was quite magical.  In fact, the best and most moving scene in this production (in my humble opinion) was the scene in Gertrude's bedroom, after the ghost of Hamlet's father enters to warn his son. The love and pain and wonder and regret on all three of their faces was quite astounding.  For me, this was probably the only scene where all the elements came together and made Hamlet.  At least, Hamlet for me, which I realize is a highly individual thing...

photo credit: Sara Krulwich

This production emphasized humor, sometimes in conjunction with the script, and sometimes just awkwardly added on top of the dialogue.  Keegan-Michael Key opened the show with a pre-curtain speech that had a comic, light touch that probably put us in a more light-hearted mood than normal.  Which isn't bad, in itself, but it did make it easier for people to crack up during parts of the play that maybe aren't necessarily funny.  My seat was extreme stage left - at one point, I wondered why the audience in the center and on stage right were howling with laughter at one of Polonius' speeches. When I heard a toilet flush afterwards (and read various reviews), I realized he was sitting on the toilet. Uh, really?  I'm rather glad I didn't 'see' that, because what did it add, except a cheap laugh?  And there were TONS of cheap laughs during the Players scenes, especially the death scene in the Death of Gonzago section.  I didn't really get on board with that, nor did I appreciate using Polonius' dead body as a seat-filler, a la Weekend at Bernie's.  But the rest of the audience seemed to, so I guess it worked for most people.

Speaking of Polonius' dead body, here come some staging spoilers: the putting of his body in a theater seat was at the end of the second 'act', then the third 'act' started with his body positioned center stage. During Ophelia's mad scene, she continually brought in planters and dropped the dirt over her father's body.  Um.  And then she came out with a garden hose and proceeded to 'drown' by pouring water all over herself and her dirty father.  There was mud everywhere and she laid down next to him.  Then there were a few scenes done around them, as if they weren't there, which was awkward, then there was a blackout and when the lights came back up, Polonius and Ophelia sat up and proceeded to play the First and Second Gravedigger.  Ok.  So, I think the point for all of that was to get the shock value of their sitting up together to do those scenes, so it seemed as if it were staged backward. Or something.  I didn't much appreciate that particular directorial choice.

photo credit: Carol Rosegg

As I mentioned earlier, one directorial choice I did like was doubling Claudius with the ghost of Hamlet's father.  I found Ritchie Coster to be sublime, all strutting, slimy charm as the new king, which turned into fear as he realized it was all slipping away, and then he was so haunted and sad as the ghost of Hamlet's father.  He spoke the language beautifully and presented some compelling images throughout the evening.  I did NOT like his also playing the Player King - I guess the idea of his acting out the scene where he killed his brother was interesting on paper, but it just made everything really confusing.  And cut the moment where we see Claudius realize that Hamlet is on to him.  Since Hamlet has taken so much time to warn Horatio about watching for that moment, the fact that it's now not there is odd. Charlayne Woodard was her usual fantastic self as Gertrude - she was regal, dazzled by Claudius, yet worried about her son.  I loved how she constantly put herself in between people threatening either Claudius or Hamlet - it gave her a real strength and fortitude that sometimes can be missing in the character.  She, of course, delivered her dialogue stunningly and was beautifully specific in her gradual turning away from Claudius.  It was a lovely performance and she had great chemistry with Coster.

The rest of the cast was quite good as well - it took me a bit to get used to only nine actors playing all the roles, and I've already shared my quibbles with some of the doubling, so I won't dwell.  I found it interesting that the gal playing Ophelia had the same blunt, flat affect that Laura had in the recent Glass Menagerie revival (both shows directed by the same director, btw).  Where I found that affect to be very revealing in Menagerie, here I found it too false, jarring and contemporary.  So that character didn't work for me, unfortunately.

Another production aspect that DID work for me, though, was the music - there was an onstage musician, playing the cello and some kind of small pipe organ.  I did like the underscoring - I thought it was very effective and didn't intrude or force mood, just heightened things.  The lighting and sound choices were also very good - at first, I thought playing the first few scenes with the ghost in the dark was a silly idea, but with the terrific lighting and even more terrific acting from Coster as the lights dimly showed him as the ghost, I came on board with the concept.

All in all, I enjoyed myself at this production of Hamlet, quibbles and all, because Oscar Isaac, Charlayne Woodard and Ritchie Coster were fantastic and overrode the aspects I didn't enjoy as much.  I'm glad I saw it and I look forward to seeing all of them, maybe especially the talented and charming Isaac, on stage again soon.