My final Stratford outing for this year is Hamlet, directed by Peter Pasyk, and I'm tempted to refer to this as the "Concorde Hamlet" since a number of scenes flew by at what seemed like the speed of the legendary supersonic airliner from the last century.
But then I immediately rein myself in and remember the many other moments in the performance which were allowed ample, and more than ample time to breathe -- and for us, the audience, to hold our breaths.
In addition to this sonic-boom-or-bust pacing, the show was also distinguished by a universally strong cast and imaginative lighting, sound, and music effects.
As the Director's Notes in the programme explained, the text of Hamlet exists in three source versions, all quite different from each other -- the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, and the First Folio. The First Quarto is often referred to as the "bad Quarto" since it contains far less text that the others, and has lines and an entire scene which do not appear in the other versions. It's believed that the First Quarto may be a pirated edition or a shortened version for a touring company, drawn from an actor's copy. Thus, there's always the problem of which version(s) to use as source material for a production or a modern print edition. This production draws on all three extant texts. As well, there's the challenging length of the original texts -- well over 5 hours performing time in the Second Quarto and the First Folio, making it Shakespeare's longest play. Surgery, therefore, becomes so desirable for a modern audience as to be essential.
In this performance, the most notable surgery was the complete deletion from the play of the character of Fortinbras, Prince of Norway. This in turn means that the play ends with the death of Hamlet, with Horatio having the last word: "Good night, sweet Prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
For the rest, I am not familiar enough with Hamlet to be able to identify any of the other excisions. I must confess that this has never been one of my favourite Shakespeare plays (gasp! shock! horror!).
With all that scholarly foofaraw out of the way, how did the production unfold?
On entering the theatre, the audience saw a large multi-panelled wall of mirrors spread across the balcony level of the Festival Theatre's famous thrust stage, with smaller mirrored panels lining the edge of the balcony itself. As the play unfolded, it became clear that the mirrored walls were actually one-way mirrors, and became see-through windows when lights came on behind them, illuminating offstage scenes that were in Hamlet's thoughts at the moment.
The production was set in today's world, and such techno gadgets as Bluetooth earpieces and cellphones appeared and were used frequently, just as one would expect of young people today. That gave the world of the play a strong sense of familiarity which, oddly enough, made the violent action all the more dislocating to the viewers.
Amaka Umeh gave a fire-eating performance as Hamlet, pushing the envelope in every direction as if playing to a camera for a TikTok -- as, indeed, Hamlet did on several occasions. Unlike some other performances where Hamlet was content to act verbally mad, Umeh drove the role hard into the physical dimensions of madness, letting an expressive face and uncommonly flexible body underline the disjointed personality of the Prince until his discomfiture screamed to heaven. This performance was nothing if not memorable, although the sheer overplus of the portrayal might make some viewers uncomfortable.
The next powerful centre of the performance came from Graham Abbey as Claudius and Maev Beaty as Gertrude. This pair of Stratford stalwarts presented a united front against Hamlet's extravagances in the early running, only to come apart even more believably at the seams as the truth came out. Beaty in particular made a stunning impact in her final moments in the last scene.
Matthew Kabwe created a Ghost of power and strength, a voice from the grave impossible to ignore. His key scene with Hamlet was one of the dramatic highlights of the show. All the more appropriate, then, that Kabwe should have been double-cast (not unusual, actually) as the Gravedigger.
Norman Yeung and Ijeoma Emesowum brought colourful presence and string vocal work to the duo of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Andrea Rankin's mad scene as Ophelia ranged all over the stage and all over the actor's vocal compass too, in a disintegration that might well have wrung tears from a stone.
As her father, Polonius, Michael Spencer-Davis played up the absurdity of the man who has nothing to say and contrives to say it over and over again. Fine work for those who feel that, with Polonius, the comedy is the key point.
The principal cast were surrounded by a strong team of players in minor parts, including the attendant lords who came across more like a security patrol, and the travelling players.
There is, of course, no such thing as a definitive Hamlet -- and there had much better not be. Within its own chosen limits, Peter Pasyk's production brings many strengths and an immense, almost unmanageable energy to the play. Is this a good thing? In the end, it still comes down to whether the individual audience member feels that the more frantic scenes are a good fit with the material.
A final note: there's been a lot of discussion about the casting of Amaka Umeh, a female person of colour, in the male role of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In fact, the show included many notable roles played by persons of colour. Umeh played the title role as a man, and showed more than ample ability to rule the notoriously challenging Festival stage in such a major and challenging role. So what's the problem?
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