Something's Accomplished in the State of Denmark: HID'S HAMLET

Megan Greener and David Andrew Laws take turns playing the role of the Melancholy Dane in Hamlet Isn't Dead's Hamlet.  Photograph courtesy of Valerie Terranova Photography

Full Disclosure: This reviewer has seen over 30 iterations of Hamlet to date - from 4 person, 70 minute re-imaginings to 4-hour uncut spectaculars.  Comparison to other productions is inevitable.  See other Classical NYC review of Hamlet here and here.

The beauty of performing Shakespeare, is that he allows each group of artists to explore something new in his texts.  It's equally valid for Kenneth Branaugh to explore Love's Labour's Lost through the lens of musical theatre, as it is for him to present Henry V in doublet and hose.  The audience may prefer one version over another, but the important lens when entering in to see a Shakespeare show is:

What is this group of artists trying to say, and did they manage to say it?

For director James Rightmyer, Jr., Executive Director of Hamlet Isn't Dead, while his hook into Elsinore might have been the clever handing off of the titular role between two actors, Megan Greener and David Andrew Laws, what Rightmyer is exploring is the nature of grief subverted.  Specifically, how the inability to express grief goes septic, how bottling or bypassing grief can make the living go mad.

This thesis is achingly realized in Megan Greener's portrayal of the Melancholy Dane.  Her astonishment and yearning at encountering the ghost of her father, her anguish when she sees him again in the closet scene only to lose him as he goes out the casement, and each resultant act of desperation co-mingle together to create a portrait that leaves the viewer in tears, thinking of lost loved ones.

Added to this is Greener's ability to be absolutely present in every moment, to bring nuance to every line, as though the thought had never been put together in that way before.  Not only does she nail "the speech," making "That is the question" as much a revelation as a statement, but she plays with the text and each character nimbly, effortlessly commanding center stage.

Rightmyer and Co. go one step further, allowing Greener to play the Prince of Denmark as a woman, and her counterpart, Ophelia (David Andrew Laws on alternating nights), as a man.  Going to great lengths to keep scansion and meaning (for example, Greener says: "Sylph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered" rather than the feminine "Nymph"), the play transfers easily from an angry young man waffling on revenge - to a fierce young woman, striding through her grief.

The closet scene with Gertrude, so ordinarily a place of misogyny among directors - ever since Freud decided Hamlet, extratextually, was vaguely Oedipal - here between a mother and a daughter gains greater poignance and vivacity.  If anything, Greener's Hamlet is allowed more rein to rail at her mother, for that the two are evenly matched.  Kendra Lee Oberhauser's Gertrude might even have the advantage.

Old speeches that were once taken for granted receive a jolt of life by these small alterations.  Greener asks: "What a piece of work is a woman?"  And suddenly the listener is forced to realize that, yes, women too are "Noble in reason, [and] infinite in faculty."  Praise must go as well to the entire cast who managed both nights switching "Lord" to "Liege" and "Son" to "Daughter" with fairly few mistakes.

Perhaps some greater consideration might have been given to a male Ophelia.  David Andrew Laws plays the role admirably, but the positioning of a straight, white male in the role of the fragile Ophelia who must be told by brother and - in this case - mother to guard his heart from Prince Hamlet, only serves to highlight how underwritten the role really is.  However, considering that after 30+ Hamlets this reviewer has seen, this is the first and only Hamlet and Ophelia thus far to be either played by a woman and man respectively as their genders, I'll give HID's breaking new directorial possibilities a light pass.

Given the nature of rehearsing what is, essentially, two different Hamlets within the course of a single, constrained period of time, it's little wonder that more effort seems to have been poured by the cast and crew into exploring Greener's female Prince, than David Andrew Laws' Melancholy Dane.  Laws, an excellent performer, particularly when he allows himself to do intricate, cerebral work, at least at the time of this review hadn't quite made the role his own.  He acquitted himself beautifully, make no mistake of that, and I expect that he'll delve further during this production, but the specifics of his Hamlet weren't as evidently in place.

The rest of the cast acquits themselves well.  And if they've gotten shorter shrift in this review, it's only because of all Shakespeare's plays, Hamlet simply is more about Hamlet than anyone else on that stage.  As famously said in Slings and Arrows Season 1, you can't get very far in Hamlet before he starts talking again.  However...!

Calee Miles, Cato Crumbley and Israel R. Hillery as Hamlet's friends, Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern respectively all do well - whether true friends or secret spies.  Don Meehan gives Claudius an aging rockstar vibe, which suits quite well with Kendra Lee Oberhauser's Gertrude, straight from the Upper East Side.  Rachel Black Spaulding as the female Polonius retains the courtier's comedy, while adding a layer of true maternal affection for her children.

Greg Pragel's Laertes especially shines in the second act when he comes back and confronts personal tragedy after personal tragedy.  Pragel pulls double duty as fight choreographer, and it's clear that he's trained his cast well, as well as creating smart violence, especially in the climactic final act.  David Anthony Hentz is a standout as Marcellus/Osric - two roles typically given to apprentice actors, or cut altogether - but which in Hentz' capable hands shine.  (He also gets perhaps the funniest ad lib at the mention of pirates ever.)  Last but far from least, James M. Armstrong, returning to play with HID after his run as Falstaff in Merry Wives, shines as the Ghost, Player King (and Queen), and the Grave Digger from - where else? - Jersey.

Audience members looking for the full experience of Shakespeare's text might find themselves upset at Rightmyer's liberal cutting.  The play runs swiftly at exactly two hours, including intermission, and a shorter Hamlet is generally welcome.  However, this cutting loses some of the big set pieces, most noticeably the double soliloquy with Claudius.  Rightmyer also cuts down Hamlet's soliloquies, which may surprise the ear of those who know those speeches by heart.

However, I found the cut in line with Rightmyer's vision.  He's not interested in Claudius' point of view.  He's not interested in questions of whether Hamlet should revenge, or Fortinbras' claim.  He's interested in grief.  And he's cut the text down to match.

Hamlet Isn't Dead's signature brand is a swift Shakespeare, with fun, music, and considerable ad-libbed clowning, which means that for years, I've been wondering whether HID could pull Hamlet off.  The answer: Absolutely Yes.  This production marks a maturity for this exciting NYC theatre company, and I'm greatly looking forward to what comes next.

Highly recommended.

Hamlet Isn't Dead's Hamlet runs through Saturday, April 13 at the Center at West Park.  Tickets available here.