The prince of Denmark is losing it and who can blame him. His father, the king, died; his mother immediately married his uncle (also the now deceased king’s brother) and it has now come to light, through the ghost of his father of course, that his death might actually have been cold-blooded murder.
The story should sound familiar as it sets the stage for the wild Shakespearean ride that is “Hamlet,” recently performed by AU’s Rude Mechanicals and directed by Seth Rose, a junior in the School of Communication.
In taking on the epic three-hour play, the Mechanicals made their best attempt to take dramatic ownership of Shakespeare’s long, laborious, yet endlessly poetic monologues and dialogues.
In the struggle to master the text and appropriately capture the underlying emotions, the show’s start seemed unpromising as each line recited felt too wordy and forced, recalling memories of bad high school class reading of the work. But any concern was abated as the actors (and the audience) fell into rhythm of the story.
Having been informed by the spooky ghost of his father (Joe Wenner, SIS senior) that his uncle, King Claudius (Steven Ballew, SPA junior) is responsible for his death, Hamlet (John Ackerman, SPA junior) devises the perfect, or rather the most melodramatic, plot to catch him red-handed.
What ensues, as all know, is a rather absurd series of events as Hamlet pretends to be plain crazy and crazy in love simultaneously, while directing the play-within-a-play that would indict a guilty King Claudius.
It is once the wheels of this plot have been set in motion that this adaptation became most theatrically rousing, reaching tragicomic heights and depths. With our particular Hamlet, the audience is offered ostentatious manic depression as he undergoes his dubious bout of insanity, which is mostly convincing but at times compensates loudness for emotional intensity. Juxtaposed with a rather minimalist direction in staging, purposeful or inadvertent as that may be, is the dynamic nature of the characters and the portrayals offered.
Appropriately so, the performances are the backbone of this drama and, while some individual performances truly shine, the ensemble as a whole plays off each other well.
Standouts include an extremely hilarious Polonius (Charles Merrick, sophomore in CAS) the complete essence of annoying, aloof, yet lovable father to Laertes and Ophelia. Along with him, is the vibrant and heartbreaking Ophelia (Lauren Alexander, SOC junior), whose quick transition from a pretty, innocent and slightly in love young lady to a broken, depressed and slightly deranged person is heartfelt and touching.
Though the cast is a mixed bag in regards to ability, scenes featuring multiple members of the ensemble possessed a certain fluidity and ease which really made one believe the events transpiring were organic outcomes of the characters’ action and highlighted the strengths of the Rudes as a group.
What stands out though is that the ultimate star of “Hamlet” is still the man behind the magic, Mr. Shakespeare. However, as far as homage goes, the Rude Mechanicals gave their all in this worthwhile production.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
