It’s a rather different Hamlet that’s up and running at The Repertory Theatre St. Louis. It’s not weird – no Hamlet-on-Mars – but the pacing feels different, zippier, Hamlet is played differently and the visuals are anywhere from great to downright stunning.
The oft-told tale is of a prince of Denmark whose father has died a month ago, his uncle inheriting the throne and immediately marrying the widowed Queen. Hamlet’s father’s ghost appears one cold night and tells Hamlet that he was murdered by the new king.
Therein is the trigger. Has the news driven Hamlet mad or is this a show he’s putting on to nab his uncle? Does it start as a ploy and dissolve into the real thing? This Hamlet, played by Jim Poulos, leaves the feeling that it’s as sudden a descent into mental illness as Leontes’ in Winter’s Tale is. Rationality peeks through from time to time, as it often does in real life. Poulos’ physical acting is energetic, his delivery at times rapid-fire, the effect sometimes downright comedic, which doesn’t really feel incongruous. He’s young, he’s driven, he’s smart – no wonder he’s irresistible, even in the midst of all this.
Playing against the zip of his performance is quite the trick. Both his uncle, the king, Michael James Reed, and Gertrude, his mother, Robynn Rodriguez, are far more restrained for the most part, he in his guilt and fear of being revealed and she in her distress at seeing her son this way. Perhaps the most interesting of that generation is Larry Paulsen’s Polonius, a royal counselor. He often seems gently puzzled in the style of a favorite absent-minded college professor. He sends his son off to France with one of the many speeches in this play that are so familiar to contemporary ears, carrying off the seemingly contradictory instructions with perfectly reasonable assurance.
Polonius also has a daughter. Hamlet is smitten with her, the lovely Ophelia, and she’s feeling pretty much the same way. Kim Wong’s Ophelia starts out sounding like an ordinary teenager except for the language. But as she, too, begins to fall apart after her father’s death, the strength of her portrayal becomes apparent.
Paul Mason Barnes, no stranger to the Rep, has brought together and directed a fine team. The set, by Michael Ganio, is stunning with its immense single Corinthian column, snow falling softly to the rear, the whole far more complex than the eye recognizes at first. Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz’ lighting strokes the stage, almost flirting with it. Then there are the costumes. Dorothy Marshall Englis either had a really good time with this one or a nervous breakdown. They’re handsome and fascinating and totally timeless, with modern references and riffs on standard things – watch the back of a jacket, for instance, for a flow of pleats.
This is a show that can sweep an audience away. Hamlet is, I think, always supposed to be disconcerting, and, as always can be done with Shakespeare, here we have a new way to be transported.
Hamlet
through November 5, 2017
Repertory Theatre St. Louis
Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts
130 Edgar Rd., Webster Groves
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