HAMLET at London’s
National Theatre, broadcast live around the world and captured in Queens, NY,
was thrilling.
While no dramaturg was listed in the program or online, he
or she had a large influence on this production, since a great deal of editing was
done on the script, scenes re-arranged, as well as interesting combined
characters. From the point of view of a
filmed performance, I found only one flaw:
one or two too many close-ups in what was clearly a beautifully staged production
by director Lyndsey Turner. I want to see the actors in relation to one
another and whatever was happening on the part of the stage the cameras weren’t
showing me.
But that’s minor.
What I did see was scintillating theatre with fine acting in a coherent
production of a great play. The dress is
modern, the time not set, the formality of the address, and dress, and Elsinore
itself tells us that this world is removed from ours no matter the year.
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| Will he or won't he? Cumberbatch as Hamlet. (Photo Johan Persson) |
The first scene on the ramparts was skipped and instead we
are met by Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet
in front of the curtain, listening
to a small phonograph play Nat King Cole’s rendition of “Nature Boy.” Hamlet weeps.
Soon after Horatio enters, they jump ahead and right to the dinner
scene, which is magnificently staged. A
long table is sumptuously set parallel to the edge of the stage so we can see
everybody, and here begins a conceit through the play: Hamlet comes forward (walking
across the top of the table) and the action continues behind him silently, in
slow motion, as Hamlet speaks directly to the audience.
In this scene we meet the major players, including a Laertes
who was clearly a friend of Hamlet’s, and who, loving his own father well, felt
the sting of Claudius’ insensitive exhortations to Hamlet to forget his dead
father. No words are exchanged between
them, yet a relationship is clear, as is the relationship established in the
next scene with Laertes’ sister.
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s
Laertes is not so self-absorbed here as he is often played, and is part of the
court. Siân Brooke’s Ophelia is young and in love, and the relationship
between her and her brother Laertes is solidified when they sit at the grand
piano stage center and play a little ditty together. This follows through
later, when the piano, amid the shambles that Elsinore becomes in the second half,
is out of tune and harsh.
Cumberbatch’s Hamlet is striking: he is in pain, he is in
mourning. His mother Gertrude is oblivious to his pain and forgetful of her
first husband since she’s so enamored of the second. And yet we see this Gertrude, as played by Anastasia Hille, is connected to the
people around her, Ophelia in particular.
Ciarán Hinds is a
very good if cold Claudius. I saw no
passion for Gertrude, just affection. He
is a purely political animal. Gertrude‘s
path through the play is succinct — no dallying while her first husband was
alive, this woman sees the truth only when Hamlet shows her, and finally sees
Claudius for who he is.
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| Hinds as Claudius in Elsinore as designed by Es Devlin. (Photo Johan Persson) |
When the Players present the play within the play, a small
curtained stage is set up for the introduction of the Player King and Player Queen,
then Hamlet, manic and sweating, plays Lucianus (nephew to Gonzago in the play within
a play) himself. Later in his mother’s room, the same small curtained stage is
used to hide Polonius behind the arras, which I found rather witty.
Karl Johnson was effective
both as the Ghost of King Hamlet and the Gravedigger. Morag
Siller played a character comprised of Voltimand and Osric well, yet we miss the hilarity of a different
sort of Osric.
Jim Norton as
Polonius was fine without standing out from many an old man, his lines deeply
edited.
Some of the cuts were too deep, I think, but the actors made
the most of them. Particular points for the work of the powerful Anastasia Hille and poignant Siân
Brooke.
Act one ends with Claudius exhorting England to “Do it,
England” meaning “the present death of Hamlet.”
Then an autumn wind blows across the stage….
Light and wind made for some very nice effects joining the
end of the first act and the beginning of the second. At the opening of the second half, detritus,
dead leaves and dirt have been piled all over the stage, creating new levels of
deterioration.
When we see Ophelia in the first act, she carries about and
uses a camera. In the second act, she drags
a trunk banging down the stairs.
Gertrude opens it when Ophelia exits and finds the trunk filled with torn
black-and-white photographs and Ophelia’s camera. Seeing this, Gertrude knows what
Ophelia is about and runs off after her, to no avail, of course. In the second half, the women are a bit less
well coiffed and dressed, in synch with the trappings of power that droop dwindling
on the stage.
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| Anastasia Hille as Gretrude. (Photo by Johan Persson) |
After Ophelia’s death, director Lindsey Turner created a
lovely stage picture of Claudius rushing after the enraged Laertes, stopping at
the top of the stairs to reach back for his wife. But Gertrude turns her back and walks away
from him, barefoot through the dirt.
This Gertrude had not thought for a moment that her first husband died
an unnatural death, but finally sees her nation crumbling around her and knows
that something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
In the second half, Hamlet’s cry from Ophelia’s grave to
Laertes, “I loved you ever,” is a reinforcement of the friendship that appeared
at that dinner table in the first half.
The fight scene is fabulous, beautifully staged by fight director Bret Yount and fought by highly skilled
Hamlet and Laertes. It brought about swift
death.
All in all an effective rendering, but close-cropped to
focus on Hamlet and the nuclear family at the expense of some of other
characters. Although a slimmed down
version of the play, this was a memorable Hamlet,
produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.
#
On the other hand, when it comes to the Roundabout Theatre
Company production of Harold Pinter’s Old Times, I agree completely with
my friend Horvendile’s blog about it at http://www.matthewslikelystory.blogspot.com/2015/10/old-times-or-you-pinter-you-brought-er.html. At the end of the thankfully brief
performance, the first thing out of my mouth was “I don’t think that’s what
Pinter meant.” That’s all. It was a fun evening, but it wasn’t … Pinter.
Pinter is not about shouting and emoting; it’s about
repressing. The play is under and
between the lines. Pinter knew that
shouting reduces the efficacy and impact of anger, diluting its power. Pinter must be underplayed. Director Douglas
Hodge should know that, whatever his credentials. Surely the three wonderful British actors (Kelly Reilly, Clive Owen, and Eve Best) must know that.
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| L-R Reilly, Best, and Owen. (Photo: Joan Marcus) |
As for the rest, the immediate assault by light (Japhy Weiderman) and sound (Clive Goodwin) started us off
poorly. The set design by Christine Jones was quirky and odd and
I did wonder if it signified being at the edge of the world….perhaps a bit
distracting. While costumes by Constance Hoffman were fitting, music
was ill-chosen by Thom Yorke.
This is not to say I’m not glad I saw it. I’m glad. But it wasn’t …. Pinter.
~ Molly Matera, signing off, recommending National Theatre’s
HAMLET
(still playing at select theatres, see http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/)
and not so much the Roundabout Old Times.
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