Review: HAMLET at Naked Shakes--UCSB

Even when people can't boast a profound understanding of the context or details of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the play is still widely recognized as a significant piece of dramatic fiction that explores themes of grief, insanity, existential philosophy, and vengeance. It's a great choice for UCSB's Naked Shakes program, which, under the direction of Irwin Appel, offers incoming freshmen a summer introduction to the performance arts while working alongside students from the BFA. While students may have slogged through the play in high school, experiencing Hamlet on stage--especially within the modern and starkly minimal aesthetic of Appel's Naked Shakes productions--brings into sharp focus the continued relevancy of the play's themes.

Hamlet's father, the King of Denmark is murdered by his brother, Claudius (Jarred Web), who then marries Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude (Olivia Rose Nathan), and takes the throne. No one suspects foul play except Prince Hamlet (Tadja Enos), who senses something rotten in the state of Denmark. His fears are validated when his father's ghost spurs him to avenge his untimely death. Hamlet takes up the mantle of vengeance with single-minded focus, sacrificing relationships along the way.

The prince of Denmark is played by Tadja Enos, a casting choice that not only infuses the the play with the current social focus around the blurring of traditional gender lines, but also gives the play a strong leading player whose wide-eyed intensity expresses a complicated roiling of regret and resolve. Rather than playing with gender politics within the play, Enos' Hamlet is fairly genderless. Director Irwin Appel describes Enos' physicality as personal to a character who doesn't quite fit with their surroundings."I definitely did not cut the text to make the idea of a woman playing Hamlet work," he says of his adaptation. Enos' androgynous vibe highlights Hamlet's lack of tether to the traditionally defined codes of social conduct, labeling him a dissenter.

Naked Shakes productions distill Shakespeare's work to an essential tincture. Hamlet, performed in black box with minimal lighting, sound, and set design effects, uses the accessibility of a unassuming, modern costuming and the power of the imagination to transform the empty space into the Denmark court with language and performance. The storytelling, both verbal and gestural, is the focus of the Naked Shakes style, and Appel's Hamlet rages with the vigor and angst of a garage band screaming out mayhem over the noise. The fight choreography (by Tyler X Koontz) embraces the play's violent energy, and the performers bring true ferocity to the stage. While the play's hard-and-fast delivery didn't stir a strong emotional connection to characters or situations, it pushed the action relentlessly to tragic conclusion with no room for a wandering consciousness. Naked Shakes' Hamlet is a gritty and intense imagining of the Bard's catastrophic revenge fantasy.

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