Review: Southwest Shakespeare Company's HAMLET Breaks The Mold ~ A Unique and Imaginative Interpretation!

Unique and imaginative in interpretation, scope and design, David Barker's HAMLET transports Shakespeare's tragedy to an Elsinore that is fertile grounds for madness, revenge, and calamity.

Tianna Torrilhon's clean and spartan set, limited to large oaken doors and a couple of multipurpose boxes, chillingly defines the bleak and ominous landscape into which the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune will be suffered. The riggings (part of an extended "ropes" metaphor that Barker uses to powerful effect and is incorporated into Maci Cae Hosler's costumes) that overhang the stage suggest a ship of state that will soon lose its moorings. Daniel Davisson's mood lighting adds to the atmospherics that forewarn of a sea of troubles.

It is William Wilson's electrifying portrayal of the aggrieved prince, devastated by the murder of his father, that ultimately gives depth and weight and nuance to Southwest Shakespeare Company's current production of HAMLET. His is an intentional Hamlet, making a clear choice as to what side of the question (To be or not to be?) he adheres. Consumed by grief and in high dudgeon over the treachery of Claudius (Keath David Hall) and the apparent complicity of Gertrude (Amie Bjorklund), Hamlet is not paralyzed. His answer is to take arms, to inflict harm on the perpetrators, and avenge the crime ~ notwithstanding the inevitable collateral damage.

Speaking of which (i.e., the collateral damage), there's delicate Ophelia, played with sweet vulnerability by Melody Knudson. Madly in love with Hamlet, she goes mad when spurned by him. Knudson is mesmerizing as she chants and pirouettes her way to suicide.

The play has its richest moments when Wilson's Hamlet interacts with his perceived antagonists ~ sassing Polonius (Gary Keast), commiserating with Laertes (Andy Cahoon), taunting Claudius, tormenting Gertrude, and dispatching Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Natalie Andrews and Jordan Letson). For in these engagements, Wilson shows his range and agility in delivering a uniquely nuanced interpretation of his character ~ whether feigning madness, strutting Chaplinesque and mugging for the crowd, lamenting, calculating, or defiant.

One of the most enthralling and gripping moments in the play is Wilson's To be or not to be soliloquy. It is as innovative an interpretation of the speech as I have seen. I refrain from a spoiler here, because the scene must be experienced first hand.

Director Barker has wisely dispensed with what might be considered extraneous script (including the whole Fortinbras scenario) in order to deliver a more compact and accessible presentation of the classic. He has exercised remarkable creativity, discretion and liberty in employing anachronisms and adding humor to selected scenes ~ to wit, the grave digger (Clay Sanderson) singing Get Happy as he prepares for Ophelia's burial. Finally, his choreographic sensibility and theatricality is brilliantly on display with artistic segues and parallel reenactments downstage of remembrances cited by center stage characters.

HAMLET, as part of the Company's annual Winterfest, runs in tandem with Much Ado About Nothing at Mesa Arts Center through January 28th.

Photo credit to Patrick Walsh

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