Randuwa II: Hamlet - Shakespeare Theatre Company

Every year for my birthday I do plan a theater outing. This year it was the Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington, D.C.'s production of "Hamlet". I have to admit, as familiar as I am with the play, I've never seen it staged before.

Well, with one exception! Back when I taught middle school in central Kentucky for a class project my sixth graders did a study of Shakespeare and chose Hamlet to rewrite into a short (40 minutes) production with all the best lines and lots of death. It was a hoot and we even got to present it to the state's middle school teachers convention that year! I don't care what anyone says, middle school kids rock!

But I digress. This production featured the current broadway phenom and former "Ugly Betty" cast member, Michael Urie, and was it's artist director's final directing act before he retires at the end of the year. A lot of buzz. Here's the thing about Shakespeare. When you get to stage a production at this level you easily fill the cast with competent actors who can speak Elizabethan English dialogue with certain alacrity. They rattle off the words without stumbling and by following the punctuation marks are intelligible. Then there are those precious few who break the code. They so thoroughly "get" what is being said, what it means and how it is part of their character, that their presentation of the dialogue is natural and effortless. It's not common. And I have yet to discover a staged production of any of Shakespeare's plays where the majority of the cast can do this consistently.

This production of Hamlet was no exception. The exceptions were Keith Baxter who played the Ghost/the Player King/the Gravedigger. He nailed every line with conscious being. His art even elevated Michael Urie's portrayal of Hamlet when the two were is discourse together. Another example of this was Oyin Oladejo's portrayal of Ophelia. This Nigerian born Canadian actor was a breath of fresh air in the role and yet her performance in it's emotional nuance had room for improvement, but still she was notable in her inhabiting the person of Ophelia. Honorable mention would go to both Madeleine Potter as Queen Gertrude and Alan Cox as King Claudius. As fate would have it, I was surprised to realize that I had seen Madeleine Potter play the mother in the Ford's Theater production of "The Glass Menagerie" on my birthday two years ago! She was likewise most enjoyable in that role, too.

Who disappointed? Robert Joy's performance as Polonius. He was some wonderfully comic lines along the way to his demise...but having tripped over all of his lines like a day at the races failed to endear anyone to his character and truly his death was more blessed than lamentable. And he's a fine actor, I am sure. But I didn't connect at all with him in this role, and grew weary wishing he had said this line or line differently. The other noteworthy disappointment was Paul Cooper as Laertes. Never missed a line, never missed a cue (no one did), but a cold as a corpse without even the curious interest of a zombie. The best thing you could say was that he didn't hinder anyone else's performance.

Now, to the main event. Okay, let's just get it out of the way. Michael Urie is as cute as a fucking button!--a veritable edible arrangement for the eyes. This is not in dispute and it will not effect my reflections on his performance. Being that any modern production of Shakespeare must needs mess a little bit with the Bard's original work, this one was no different. Instead of starting straight away on the Castle ramparts with a ghost, this one started by prologuing later dialogue of Hamlet's with Hamlet who jumps onto the sparse geometric stage alone. It's a bit about his father's death and his confused angst at his mother's sudden marriage to his uncle with a proper period of morning. I'm going with it, but Michael was having some difficultly owning it. The battle wasn't in the mind of the character Hamlet...the battle was in the heart of the actor Michael. It was brief, but I thought..."Oh Jesus, this is going to be LONG!"

And then the play moved on. The setting became clear. A dystopian family fortress set some time in the near future with the guards being a private security team and the ghost's initial appearances being broadcast on large screens of security cameras. Very effecting (and rather the trend in Shakespeare productions of late). When Hamlet reappears and meets his father's ghost, my hopes brighten. And from that moment forward, Michael Urie became Hamlet...his own Hamlet. He successfully carried the role and the production on his shoulders for the next 3 1/2 hours! No small feat! Was it perfect? No. Was it enjoyable? Most definitely, yes! And it was interesting, at times frenetic, at times well-timed comedic. Did I see new things in Hamlet? Yes. Did he nail all of the key lines? 90% and with some, some delightful panache. I was impressed by his stamina, and his commitment to do Hamlet at every moment, every move, every line.

At the end the audience rewarded his performance with a standing ovation. Not a typical Sunday matinee thing to do. And he, Michael, led the cast in a second bow. The look of gratitude he projected back to the audience in that moment was priceless and real.