Oregon Shakespeare Festival – Hamlet

This isn’t your parent’s Hamlet. Nor is it your english professor’s Hamlet, or your high school teacher’s Hamlet, or likely any Hamlet you’ve seen before.  It is totally new and refreshing, and I mean totally, Dude.  OK, I’m not even hip enough to get past using “Totally”, or  ”Dude”, but the new Hamlet is.

Bold is the single word that serves best–bold enough to mix modern dress, ethnicities, American Sign Language, gender shifting for some characters, and iambic rap in the language.   Yet, the aggression with the script and the production melds seamlessly with the power of the original.  If the Bard were to drop by the Browmer, he’d be “down with it.”

As the role of Hamlet is played, so goes the production, and Dan Donohue gives great credit to the role.  His unassuming stage presence shows in contrast to the deft power he brings to the beleaguered, bewitched, and befuddled  son of the slain king.  His growing madness (or method) pulls the audience along into the tragic journey.  The liberal use of stop-action among the characters as Hamlet turns to his soliloquies brings a rare focus to the words.  He delivers the unaltered originals with an unusual ease and clarity. The bold innovations enhance without  distraction.

The cast provide color and contrast to the expectations of most theater goers, and in this, a new depth is added.  The madness of Ophelia is particularly credible as it emerges from a portrait of a naive and vulnerable young girl.  The smarminess of Uncle/Father/King and the gullibility of Mother/Aunt/Queen lay a solid foundation for all who surround them.  The full-of-himself nature of Polonius and the over-the-top character of the difficult part lays near to the image of bad acting, but here the true core of his characters and his support of the player shines clearly.

Action fills the staging, and I’ll guarantee you will not soon forget the troop of actors who visit the castle and the plot to bring hip-hop to the repertoire of the players within the play.  As is needed in any great production of Hamlet, all die with skill, drama, and portent of the true tragedy.  To this the play follows in the great traditions.

Leave your expectations at home, and go see this production.  It will take you on a new journey through familiar territory and you’ll come  away knowing again that “the play’s the thing”.

Hamlet opened Friday, February 19 and runs through October 30 at the Angus Bowmer Theater.  Be there.

See our Tips for Attending the Shakespeare Festival

Review written by Allen Frazier, San Francisco