Review: Off the Wall Theatre Stages Intimate and Spellbinding HAMLET

With little more than 25 seats available at the Off the Wall Theatre (OTW), Artistic Director Dale Gutzman presents William Shakespeare's Hamlet--An intimate, visceral, up close and personal Hamlet condensed by Gutzman after several years of research and eleven weeks of cast rehearsals. Working also as Production Director, Gutzman doubles acting several roles in his interpretation he states was inspired by the English, multi award winning Peter Brook, hailed to be one of the greatest living directors of contemporary theater.

With this background, Gutzman once again provides another impressive Hamlet rebirth, still one of Shakespeare's most oft produced tragedies after almost 400 years. While the audience waits for the play to begin, smoke filters through the theater, while the words from Hamlet reach the audience when being read by a hidden male actor. Similar to Shakespeare's own words, OTW's Hamlet opens with "wondrous strange" mystery.

In this sparse theater, Persian rugs warm the stage floor, amid dark wood panels spaced to to create a maze of palace or garden walls where actors appear and disappear that imagine suspense. Unlike the formal, reserved Prince of Denmark Hamlet, OTW ambiance evokes the sensuality of Mid-Eastern kingdoms, where costumes can be embellished tunics, jeans or scarves transformed into towels or turbans depending on the scene. This setting conjures the mythical tales of the Arabian nights--substantially giving an exotic mystique to Shakespeare, equally compelling as any of Scherezade's tales.

Placed in this unique setting within a few feat of the seats,, audiences experience Jeremy C. Welter's Hamlet speaking directly to them and sitting three feet away in the theater aisle during one of Hamlet's famous soliloquies: "To sleep; perchance to dream...with a dread of something we know not."

Gutzman and Welter fashion a Hamlet with the breath of Shakespeare appearing to come from a brother or friend, a person any audience member might meet--an ordinary man more than a prince, disillusioned and grief stricken by his mother's hasty marriage after his father's death, and unsure of his affection for Ophelia. Marilyn White embodies a sympathetic mother and still devoted wife while Randall Anderson gives Claudius, Hamlet's murderous bother, a loving companion to Gertrude. Until the truth be known when Hamlet seeks revenge on his uncle, so instructed by Gutzman's waiting in purgatory ghost of the former King, who appears in a compassionate father-son tete de tete with Welter's Hamlet.

Patrick McCann's Horatio appears as Welter's most treasured friend while Calynn Klohn's Ophelia gives confusion and unrest to Polonius' (Bob Hirschi) distraught daughter and Hamlet's misused feminine counterpart.. Gutzman condensed Hamlet to read under two and a half hours, which was paced quickly. This interpretation remembers every significant character and wonderful word in Shakespeare's play contributing to a sensuous, up close and personal Hamlet, a memorable interpretation that inspires the audience. Whether the audience questions whether Hamlet or Ophelia are merely mad or mad with grief, who is truly loved, the sad twist of strange events at the end, or the existential soliloquies of Hamlet and his court, these people appear as true human beings instead of merely players, more real than any reality media.

In OTW'S Hamlet, the prince kisses Horatio and his mother, Hamlet wraps his arms around Ophelia and woos her with a lean on his elbows from a ledge above her. Within these humble palace walls, Shakespeare's characters radiate familiarity and humanity, a performance where the audience palpably sympathizes with their pain and sorrow, psychological dilemmas and musings, especially a strikingly flesh and blood Hamlet. When able to see every gesture and facial expression, the audiences engages as if on stage standing next to each actor with their own place in this tragic family drama.

Gutzman and his magnificent troupe of royal players complemented by lighting designer David Roper and a host of volunteers behind the scenes illustrate an uncanny ability for ambiance and atmosphere with the leanest of budgets and sparest spaces. Under Gutzman's direction, the small OTW space grows grand through aspiration and inspiration so the audience will view these iconic characters and lines with a fresh vision, mesmerized by this exotic setting and intimate production. Off the Wall's spellbinding Hamlet continues these theatrical traditions so the audience might weep and almost wish for more play when Horatio speaks one of Shakespeare's last lines : "Goodnight, Sweet Prince...flights of angels send thee to thy rest."

Off the Wall Theatre presents William Shakespeare's Hamlet through March 20, pictured, Jeremy C. Welter and Patrick McCann. For information, tickets to the 2016-2017 season, or tickets to the limited seating of this production, please call: 414.484.8874 or www.offthewalltheatre.com

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