Many of the Hamlets I’ve seen are clever. Some strange. It’s narcissistic, unfriendly, and even exaggerated. Less common are hamlets that are soft, romantic and painfully vulnerable, as the petals fall off the head of the flower at the end of flowering.
Alex Lawther’s fragile Danish prince takes the stage at Robert Icke’s modern dress piece “Hamlet” at Park Avenue Al Molly on Tuesday night with 19th-century poets Arthur Rimbaud and Percy Shelley. I remember. Someone who seems determined to his sadness and to the tragic end.
Over the last decade, Icke has been the focus of attention for its advanced, contemporary-influenced adaptations of classical music. This “Hamlet” was performed at the West End in 2017 and is headed by a hot priest-sized package of magnetized charisma known as Andrew Scott. He was one of the best Hamlets I’ve ever seen, but like many other takes, he focused on gloomy and jokes rather than emotional depth.
Rosa, best known for his role in “The End of the Fateful World,” does not have Scott’s starry talent, but he has his own modest kind of charisma. .. He pulls you in while withdrawing to himself. As a result, this rendition praises Hamlet as not only a melancholy of self-satisfaction, but also a struggle with a legitimate and tragic loss.
Start with a fashionable wedding reception. (Hildegard Vector created stylish sets and outfits.) Behind the sliding glass panel wall is Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude (Jennifer Ehle), and her new husband, uncle. Claudius (Angus Wright) is dancing in balloons and strings. Light. Rosa in a black suit slowly shuffles the stage and sits near the action, but away from the action. He roughly rubs his palms on his thighs, as if he rubs his cloth off his body.
During the huge production period of 3 hours and 45 minutes, Rosa perfectly embodies Hamlet’s disappointment, with his knees slightly bent and constantly shaking, shuffling like a fallen toddler. He plans to take revenge on his uncle who is plotting, and he shoots his gun diagonally, as if his arm was being manipulated by someone pulling a string on the stage. I’m ready.
And when he speaks, it’s in a slow, swaying song, and at the same time meditative and peculiar. Especially when pausing in the middle of a sentence, as his mind is obsessed with existential ideas.
The reading of the peculiar lines can be monotonous, but he then jumped out and became a surprisingly enthusiastic enthusiast. And Rosa says the famous “What a job is a human being!” It moves from wonder to despair through solitude with poetic resonance, slow articulation and emphasized rhythms.
Last year, a woman, “Enemy of the People,” played Armory, and in 2017, Broadway was briefly staged in “1984,” creating a dimension using the foreground and background, like a movie. Direct the eyes. In one of the clever staging, Hamlet tally at the forefront, the king and queen candur behind, guarding the race on the middle stage between them who have just witnessed the ghost of the previous king.
At the same time, the director makes a couple of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about how to make some strange adjustments to the character, give Polonius a touch of dementia, and respond to the royal demand to monitor Hamlet. I’m in conflict.
Women in particular are impatient. Gertrude is unreadable despite reading Ele’s punchy lines. Ophelia’s descent into madness happens earlier than “something rotten.” It penalizes Kirsty Rider’s delicate companions who are a perfect match for Rosa’s Hamlet.
As Claudius, Wright has a self-consciously structured air of politicians, but misses some of the threats, but Peter Wight is overly leaning to complain as Polonius. But Luke Treadaway is taking full advantage of the transformation of Laertes. From a sophisticated gentleman and a beloved brother to a hingeless revenge seeker, he is waving his gun on news of his father’s murder and sister’s suicide.
There’s also a real gunshot — horrifying pop and flash that draws the audience’s attention. This isn’t as free as, for example, the production of “Richard III” by Druid Shakespeare in 2019, or even the staging of “Macbeth” on Broadway today, with amputated limbs and crotch wounds. Still, given the sneaky relationship with firearms in our country, the sight and sound of guns on stage today is uncertain.
The most frustrating of Icke’s otherwise intriguing approach is the tech embedding, which is unnecessary and now not very original. A grid of twelve screens hangs overhead, two large screens adjacent to the stage, displaying security footage from the castle and news reports on the Danish-Norwegian conflict.
The screen also alerts the audience as a spectator by blinking “pause” and “stop” before the two breaks and the final scene. The way Icke and lighting designer Natasha Chivers handle some of Hamlet’s monologues is more effective. The soft overhead halo-view Rosa looks like you’re talking directly to the audience from the edge of the stage, but snaps off when you’re done.
Tom Gibbons’ sound design envelops progress in the darkness of an ominous atmosphere. Cold mechanical ham with static and feedback. And finally, the thunder screams of the drums. The folk composition of production (by Laura Marling) and the use of Bob Dylan’s songs are not very suitable. Ironically, this chic production is a bit of a Midwestern pouch jam.
“Hamlet” is one of Shakespeare’s plays that suffers most from diminishing returns. This is an adaptation that strives to innovate to express the classic modern and hip stuff. Icke’s protracted production sometimes falls into that trap, but ultimately the visual and technical talent of the creative team and its provocative young lead make this a meditation, mania, and murder of our time. Make it a story.
Hamlet
Until August 13th at the Wade Thompson Drill Hall on Park Avenue Armory. armoryonpark.org.. Execution time: 3 hours 45 minutes.
