{"id":3422,"date":"2012-10-03T08:44:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T15:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=3422"},"modified":"2012-10-03T08:49:02","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T15:49:02","slug":"hamlet-performed-in-a-swimming-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/hamlet-performed-in-a-swimming-pool\/","title":{"rendered":"HAMLET performed in a swimming pool?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cast for Hamlet at California Shakespeare. Set by Clint Ramos. Photo by Kevin Burn.<\/p><\/div>\n

HAMLET by William Shakespeare directed by Liesl Tommy. California Shakespeare Theatre, Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd), Orinda, CA 94563. (just off Highway 24 at the California Shakespeare Theater Way\/Wilder Rd. exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel. 510.548.9666 or Visit www.calshakes.org<\/a>. EXTENDED THROUGH -OCTOBER 21, 2012<\/p>\n

HAMLET performed in a swimming pool??<\/p>\n

Concept productions of Shakespeare\u2019s play are de rigueur and California Shakespeare Company (CalShakes) has embraced the obligatory fashion in all of their productions that this reviewer has attended. In 2006 in their staging of The Merchant of Venice, <\/em>Shylock\u2019s home was a metal dumpster, really. \u00a0<\/em>Would you believe that for this production of Hamlet, <\/em>famed director Liesl Tommy, whose direction of \u00a0Ruined <\/em>at Berkeley Rep garnered rave reviews, places the action in a swimming pool and its environs, really?<\/p>\n

Yes, it is a swimming pool thankfully devoid of water, surrounded by a plethora of objects that don\u2019t make sense until you read the program notes. Tommy envisions the play of a \u201cfamily [that] is by turns poetic, absurd, romantic, violent and sad.\u201d Decay is everywhere and with a brief stretch of the imagination seem odoriferous thus making the objects strewn about the stage as (with apologies to Proust) remembrance of things past.\u00a0 An explanation was given during intermission.<\/p>\n

The explanation, and it needs one, was that this is an elegant Miami mansion that has been devastated by a hurricane and the \u201cthe structure has outlived its inhabitants and is now a haunted place.\u201d\u00a0 OK, we\u2019ve got it, now what about the play?<\/p>\n

The story line is very clear although a purist will object to some of the cutting and rearranging of scenes. The major cut is the removing Prince Fortinbras\u00a0 of\u00a0 Norway who is to become the eventual King since Claudius has been killed and Hamlet is dying in the arms of Horatio. The beautiful soliloquy is cut and Horatio\u2019s line, \u201cGood night sweet Prince\u201d is truncated as the 1960s song \u201cUnchained Melody\u201d wafts from the loudspeakers into the balmy autumn night. Really.<\/p>\n

The saviors of the perfect evening for an outdoor performance are the actors playing most of the major characters.\u00a0 As Polonius observes Hamlet\u2019s feigned madness with an aside to the audience \u201cThough this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t\u201d,<\/p>\n

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LeRoy McClain as Hamlet<\/p><\/div>\n

LeRoy McClain\u2019s physicality and dominance creates an unforgettable Hamlet but his venture in to madness needs honing. \u00a0Dan Hiatt gives a strong performance as Polonius and when he doubles as a Grave Digger. Beautiful Julie Eccles transforms herself into Queen Gertrude, Hamlet\u2019s mother, matching McClain line for line in their epic verbal battle regarding her possible infamy for marrying Claudius and being implicated in her husband\u2019s murder. Adrian Roberts as Claudius gives an adequate but unimpressive performance and as the Ghost, with his speech\u2019s electronically echoed, \u00a0looks like a character in a Charles Addams\u2019 cartoon.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Pelczar as Laertes displays his talents with believable handling of mood changes demanded by the script. The pivotal role of Ophelia by Zainab Jah defies description since director Tommy has her being physically manhandled by McClain and later in her madness being trapped in an aquarium on upper stage right. \u00a0It\u2019s seems a bit too much.<\/p>\n

With all the perceived defects this production should not be missed because you will never see a Hamlet as performed by LeRoy McClain. Running time a long three hours and 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

A Medical Note<\/strong>: If the poison placed in the Kings ear is to be affective there must be a perforation in his ear drum in order to be absorbed by the mucosa. Really.<\/p>\n

Kedar K. Adour, MD<\/p>\n

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HAMLET by William Shakespeare directed by Liesl Tommy. California Shakespeare Theatre, Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd), Orinda, CA 94563. (just off Highway 24 at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-kedar-k-adour"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"