Hamlet

This is my third Hamlet of the season the others being South Coast Rep and Rubicon Theatre. If only I could take bits and pieces and put them all together but I suppose this is the hazard of one who must have seen ten Hamlets in his lifetime. In the case of the Globe Hamlet I must say I really enjoyed, yes enjoyed, the athletic performance of Lucas Hall. A dashing young blonde Adonis, he darted about the stage leaping over steps, graves, bodies, with balletic ease yet all the while his actions were quite organic.  Mr Lucas is only 25 and I would love to see him attempt this again when he is thirty, the true age of the character. His energy belied a bit the whole idea of the melancholy Dane but I don’t thick that moniker was in Shakespeare’s text. Speaking of text I didn’t much like the use of the so called bastard quarto, the version that was used by the actors, It has strange scenes such as the scene where Gertrude finds out that Claudius tried to get Hamlet Killed in England which leads here to drink the chalice with the pearl at the end of the play as a suicide gesture. Also speeches were said in different places and there was no “O Vengence!”

I also like the performances of Celeste Ciulla as Gertrude, Charles Janasz as the kindly ( in this production) Polonius, and Jonathan McMurtry as the first player and the grave digger. . Unfortunetly I cant say the same for the actors who played Claudius, Ophelia, Horation, or Laertes. But all of these actors shone in other parts of the summer festival. Darko Tresnjak directed abley on a magnificent set by Ralph Funicello which was used for each of the Shakespeares.

Lowell Davis Festival Theatre  Balboa Park  619-238-0043 until Sept 30