Theatre in Review: Hamlet (Classic Stage Company)

	Daniel Morgan Shelley and Peter Sarsgaard. Photo: Carol Rosegg

It's a fine thing when an actor tries to stretch himself, but if you're going to tackle the biggest and most challenging role in the classical repertory, surely you need to prepare. Did nobody suggest that Peter Sarsgaard, a fine actor in film and television, might benefit from some vocal training before taking on the role of Hamlet? Apparently not: Ten minutes into the new production at CSC, it is clear that the actor lacks the equipment for the role. He delivers speech after speech in the same manner, using head tones only, the effect of which is to make it sound like Hamlet is nothing but a whiner. Furthermore, he fights the verse, trying to turn it into naturalistic dialogue, an effort that is doomed to failure. He inserts pauses where none are wanted; he rushes through lines, losing their meaning. He rarely makes contact with anyone else on stage, preferring to stand and make the same ruminative hand gestures over and over. It's a perplexing performance, to say the least.

Then again, the net effect of Austin Pendleton's production is to make it seem as if Hamlet is really crazy after all. The role of the Ghost has been eliminated. Hamlet stands on the parapet of Elsinore Castle, staring in fright at...nothing. He walks off stage for the scene with the Ghost, who is neither seen nor heard. Similarly, when the Ghost appears after Hamlet has killed Polonius, Hamlet stares in fright at the air while Gertrude looks on, appalled, clearly thinking about calling 911 for her distressed son. The Ghost's famous line, "Leave her to heaven," is left unheard. This Hamlet-as-nutcase approach extends to the scene in which the players put on "The Murder of Gonzago," with Hamlet's textual changes. In most productions, Claudius runs from the room in terror, seeing his own crimes against Hamlet's father acted out in public. In this production, Hamlet intervenes so furiously as to interrupt the action. Claudius and the rest of the court back away because Hamlet is acting like a crazy person.

Pendleton's staging begins at the wedding of Claudius and Gertrude; Walt Spangler's set design essentially renders Elsinore as the kind of event space where wedding receptions take place. There is a fully set table at stage center, a wedding cake upstage, an enormous floral bower hovering above. There is a bar upstage left, and seating consoles are placed around the room. The cast members often stay on stage for scenes in which they are not involved. In one of the oddest decisions, Gertrude appears to overhear the conversation between Hamlet and Horatio about how Hamlet escaped being killed on the way to England. Of course, if Gertrude knew this, her behavior in the final scene, the duel between Hamlet and Laertes, would be entirely different. It isn't, so the point of all this is entirely lost.

So many decisions leave one wondering what Pendleton and company were trying to accomplish. When we first see the "mad" Hamlet, pretending mental distress to conceal his intentions from the court, in most productions he enters in a state of disarray; here we see him in one of the designer suits favored by costumer Constance Hoffman, looking nattier than ever. Similarly, when Ophelia loses her mind, she typically enters looking a fright; here, the actress Lisa Joyce appears, neat and clean, in the same chic gown, looking like she just came from the hairdresser. When Hamlet gets together with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they share a few lines of cocaine, a trendy bit of staging that leads nowhere. When Hamlet kills Polonius, stabbing him through the curtain in Gertrude's room, the actor Stephen Spinella, who plays Polonius, simply gets up and leaves. At the end of the scene, however, Hamlet steps behind the curtain to haul away a body that has already left under its own power. Then again, during the fatal duel between Hamlet and Laertes, Polonius crosses the stage, for reasons I cannot explain.

There are many, many other touches that deviate from the standard approach, which would be fine if they added up to a coherent vision of the play. But they don't, and with the actor playing Hamlet in so obviously over his head, this production becomes actively painful. My mind kept drifting back to CSC's 2005 Hamlet, not an ideal production for sure, but one that featured Michael Cumpsty's incisive, well-spoken, powerful Hamlet.

Pendleton's production aims for a casual, conversational approach, which too often is in conflict with the text. Harris Yulin, as Claudius, and Penelope Allen, as Gertrude, are much older than usual; this Hamlet must have been a midlife baby. Yulin's performance sometimes seems eerily tranquilized, but at least something interesting seems to be happening between him and Allen from time to time. Glenn Fitzgerald's Laertes also seems a bit long in the tooth; his performance feels overscaled compared to everyone else's low-key acting. Spinella's severely underplayed Polonius is one of the least effective I've seen. The role of Ophelia is a tough nut for today's actresses, many of whom struggle with the character's submissive nature and mental fragility. Joyce lacks radiance in her early scenes, and her breakdown seems overly calculated.

Justin Townsend's lighting creates a variety of effective stage washes; he also treats the transparent upstage curtain, and the upstage wall, in visually interesting ways. The sound design by Ryan Rumery/Soundscape is all right, but one tires of the constant murmur of doom-laden chords in the background.

There's no getting around the fact that this Hamlet is, quite simply, a mistake, a production tethered to an ill-prepared leading man and based on a directorial concept that often makes little sense. To quote another Shakespeare play, this Hamlet is ill met by moonlight. -- David Barbour.