New York, June 19: A `Hamlet` set in a contemporary military government is a reasonable concept. But "Hamlet" needs more than a current idea: It needs well-paced staging and top-flight acting.
The Shakespeare in the Park rendition from Public Theatre artistic director Oskar Eustis, playing in Central Park through June 29, fails to provide those basic ingredients.
Eustis` production unfolds against a white, metal-studded wall that resembles a military prison. A black metal catwalk along the top looks ideal for gun-toting guards. Wide doors slide open and clang shut to admit Denmark`s new ruler, Claudius (Andre Braugher), who sports more medals than a North Korean general. It`s no wonder that Laertes (a miscast David Harbour) can`t wait to get to France.
Enter Hamlet (Michael Stuhlbarg), who arrives, in a bit of directorial interpolation, at the top of the show, carrying a worn suitcase.
Clearly this slight man dressed in black does not fit in with the military crowd. But instead of a contrast between a poetic intellectual and a bunch of thugs, we get a Hamlet who rants during some of Shakespeare`s most eloquent soliloquies and plays the mad prince (sort of channeling Robin Williams) long after the text suggests otherwise.
It testifies to the lack of fire in this slow, three-hour-plus production that, when Hamlet finally kills Claudius and dies himself, we feel neither accomplishment nor loss.
Our interest and affection goes instead to the secondary characters. Sam Waterston, who once played Hamlet in the park, takes a detour from "Law & Order" to give a delightful performance as the garrulous diplomat Polonius. Jay O. Sanders makes a dignified Ghost, a gently paternal Player King and finally a wonderfully caustic Gravedigger.
As for the women, Lauren Ambrose (last summer`s Juliet in the park) brings openness and strength to Ophelia and makes the transition from rejected lover to grieving, mad daughter believable and poignant. That good actress Margaret Colin looks at sea as Gertrude -- as though she`d rather be anyplace other than this production of "Hamlet" -- is an outlook with which we were tempted to agree.
Bureau Report