Animal
Fire Theater’s “Hamlet” in Priest Point Park is exciting. Opening night was
especially exciting because just as the conflict in the play began building
toward the climactic fight scene, thunder began rumbling and lightning strikes
could be seen in the distance —a fitting end to a dramatic outdoor performance.
Shakespeare
in the park is an honored tradition with performances all over the world by
troupes both amateur and professional. Patrons bring lawn chairs or quilts to
spread on the grass, and they bring food and beverages. Mosquitoes and other distractions are to be expected,
accepted and overlooked—bring repellant.
Sometimes there are even animals to contend with.
Writing
in the Olympian, Molly Gilmore quoted director Austen Anderson: “You have weird
interactions with animals when you spend enough time out here. Birds have flown
right between two actors in the middle of a scene. We had a raven that kept
hopping around the set last year; we had to keep shooing it away.” Anderson was
referring to incidents during rehearsal and during Animal Fire Theater’s
“A Midsummer Night's Dream” last summer.
There
were no animals spotted during the opening night performance, but we did have
to ignore the sound of traffic going by on East Bay Drive and at least one
airplane overhead.
Promotional
materials describe this “Hamlet” as raw, fast and energetic. The stage area was
a strip of lawn with a wooden platform, steps going up on two ends, trap doors
on top and rough curtains on the sides. Roughly constructed curtains in “the
wings” hid actors, props and costuming from sight. Costuming was mostly contemporary.
If
anything was lost due to the roughness of the sets and lack of sophisticated
sound and lighting it was more than amply compensated for by energetic and
passionate acting. No dialing it in with half-hearted performances from these
troupers; they give it all they’ve got.
Jay
Minton in the title role of Hamlet was astounding. He was funny, he was tragic.
His madness and his cleverness were palatable. And he does a terrific voice
when talking to Yorick’s skull.
Emily
Donkin Jones was a marvelously expressive Ophelia. She came across alternately
as flirtatious, pouty, and emotionally damaged.
Kate
Arvin played Horatio with intensity. One slight problem was that in the opening
scene I had a hard time clearly hearing her words despite the fact that she was
practically screaming. Her passionate shouting seemed to overwhelm her
enunciation, but that was only in the first scene. After that she was excellent.
And it didn’t seem at all out of place that she and Korja Giles as Marcellus
were playing the part of men.
Christian
Carvajal —to my knowledge the most experienced actor in the cast — was strong
and sure in the role of Hamlet’s detested “father uncle” King Claudius.
The
only other actor in this cast that I was familiar with was Morgan Picton,
recently seen as Napoleon,
the militant leader of the pigs, in Olympia Family Theater’s “Animal Farm.” I
described him in that show as blustery and proud with a loud and commanding
voice. Much the same can be said of his performance in the triple roles of King
Hamlet’s Ghost, the Player King and the Gravedigger. His is a commanding
presence in each of these divergent roles.
“Hamlet”
is considered by many to be Shakespeare’s greatest play. Indeed, many theater
professionals consider it the greatest play ever written by anyone. The poetry,
the drama, the humor, and the complexity of themes and characters certainly
make for a terrific evening’s entertainment.
It is also
a very long play, but here it has been stripped down to just about two hours
with no intermission. In the Olympian article the director was quoted as
saying: “We want to kind of strip Shakespeare
down to its basic intentions, to its physical reactions. Shakespeare is very
poetic, but poetry isn’t always that exciting to watch. You need the action.
You need the characters in life or death situations, struggling against
something.” I must say that the action was exciting; but so was the poetry, and
I was glad to see that many of Shakespeare’s most profound and most enjoyable
word play was left intact. I re-read “Hamlet” before going to see this show,
and I didn’t miss any of the dialogue that was cut. The cutting was so skillful
that unless you are a Shakespearean scholar you’d have to compare scripts
side-by-side to even tell what was taken out.
I highly recommend this play.
Thursday, Friday,
Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. through Aug. 5 in Priest Point Park, Olympia
(park in the lot by the playground and walk into the meadow behind the
bathrooms).
Molly Gilmore’s article
in the Olympian can be found at http://www.theolympian.com/2012/07/20/2178904/condensed-hamlet-has-camp-like.html#storylink=cpy
I
also recommend the Animal Fire Theater blog for insightful commentary.
http://animalfiretheatre.wordpress.com/
http://animalfiretheatre.wordpress.com/
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