Review - Bound In A Nutshell & Woodhull at The Fringe

Imagine Hamlet infused with a shot or two of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and you'll get an idea of the atmosphere of Moonwork's very clever and entertaining Bound In A Nutshell. Adaptors Gregory Sherman and Gregory Wolfe (who also directs) craft a new script exclusively out of lines from Shakespeare's text, resetting famous scenes and reassigning classic quotations into new contexts and creating a modern day setting where the Prince of Denmark is imprisoned in a mental institution, a surveillance camera fixed on him 24/7, for the murder of Polonius.

Chris Haas is a rebellious Hamlet growing madder by the moment, plotting revenge against a slick, corporate Claudius (Christopher Yates) with the help of Sherman's preppy Horatio. And while much of the evening is sharp-edged melodrama (emphasized by Andrew Sherman's music) there are some very effecting moments such as a scene where Hamlet and Ophelia (Monique Vukovic) converse via phones through the glass partition of the prison's visiting room and another where Claudius' confessional scene is played to the imprisoned prince. But more typical of the 90-minute piece is a lively episode where the gravedigger is re-imagined as an administrator of electro-shock therapy (Zachary Zito) and Hamlet's reaction to the treatment is expressed with a choice quote from the original's fencing scene.

Unless you're a complete stranger to Hamlet, Bound In A Nutshell may prove more amusing than emotionally involving, as its high points come with the discovery of how the creators re-imagine Shakespeare's text. But with a very good cast giving fully committed performances, the evening smacks of good ol' fashioned prison drama and makes for a kick-ass time.

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I'll admit to becoming a bit of a Victoria Woodhull junkie since seeing one of the last previews of the legendary closed-on-opening-night Broadway musical, Onward, Victoria! Her story is a great chunk of American history and one that has been frequently adapted by playwrights. (The 2005 New York International Fringe Festival featured the terrific The Suffrajets Present A Musical Séance.)

Woodhull and her sister, Tennessee Claflin, had already made history in post Civil War New York by becoming the first women in America to run their own brokerage firm and, as publishers of their own weekly newspaper, printing the first English translation of Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto, when, in 1872, she became the first woman to run for President of the United States. But leaders of the suffragist movement feared she could hurt the cause with a platform that was extraordinarily radical for it's time; not only calling for equal rights for women, but for legalizing prostitution, making birth control accessible, outlawing the death penalty and, most controversial of all, advocating free love. Her belief that men and women, even while married, should be free to take as many lovers as they please without shame and her openness about the many men she's been with no doubt shocked many voters even more than her selection of Frederick Douglass as her vice-presidential running mate. (He never acknowledged the nomination.) And when she published a story that the extremely popular Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, whose sermons denounced her as "The Wicked Woodhull," was having an affair with the wife of journalist Theodore Tilton (who she herself was having an affair with) advocates for women's rights such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton saw no choice but to withdraw their support.

All the above is covered in Liza Lentini's Woodhull: A Play About the First Woman to Run for President, but the didactic and episodic piece, combined with Mary Geerlof's frequently lethargic direction, fails to convey any of the heat and excitement of the story. The heavy-handed dialogue has the men coming off as colorless and the women speaking as though they're quoting textbooks. Rev. Beecher, a major obstacle in the drama, never even appears. Recorded voices, perhaps a nod to Woodhull and Claflin's practice of clairvoyance, and the use of their carnival outside talker father as a host are ideas that aren't fully explored and come off as somewhat gimmicky.

Rachel McPhee, as Tennessee Claflin, injects some much-needed energy into the proceedings, though her character is ridiculously written as a dim-witted harlot whose favors for Commodore Vanderbilt finance the presidential campaign. As Victoria Woodhull, Katherine Barron is quite good when simply standing still and delivering political speeches directly to the audience. It's only then when Woodhull shows some spark.

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