Reviewed by Alex Brooks
A new production of Hamlet is in performance at the Capital Rep in Albany. The show, directed by Kevin McGuire, is set in Denmark in the 1920s. McGuire describes it as “Downton Abbey meets Elsinore Castle.” This era, in which young people were challenging those who retained the stiff respectability of the Victorian era to be more genuine, to show their feelings and be more honest, is peculiarly suitable to a play in which Hamlet is trying to expose the murderous intrigue that is going on in his family and in his country.
The play is often done to highlight the language and the poetry, which goes well with antique Elizabethan costumes. But this production is intent on telling a story, and everything is arranged to highlight that. Hamlet’s growing rage about the murder of his father, and the ways that this rage starts to color all his other relationships, brings a growing tension as we wait to see how it will erupt into violence. In this conception we get a dark family drama that is deeply engrossing.
The only thing about the play that doesn’t work emotionally is Hamlet’s reaction (or lack of it) after his rage finally erupts in the mistaken murder of his girlfriend’s father. He seems peculiarly unaffected by his own mostrous act. Whether this is a problem with the play or with this production is something to ponder.
This production does more than most with some of the smaller roles in the play – the characters of Ophelia, Polonius, Hamlet’s mother, and even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are more fully developed here than in most productions that focus relentlessly on Hamlet himself. The result is that it gives one a fresh new look at the play, and one leaves feeling the urge to go read the play again, and engage with it.
David Kenner is a dynamo as Hamlet. His energy carries the play along. Vanessa Sterling’s Ophelia is a fascinating character also, more fully developed than most of the Ophelias that I have seen.
Although it is a dark play, there are moments of humor, and this production makes the most of the drama built into the play.
Performances have been extended through Saturday May 16. Remaining performances are 8 pm Friday and Saturday, May 8, 9, 15 and 16 – with matinees 3 pm Saturdays. The Sunday, May 10 matinee will be preceded by a Behind-the-Scenes event, which features a complimentary light continental breakfast for ticketholders and discussion led by theREP’s Producing Artistic Director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill. Food service begins at 12:30 pm, with the presentation following from 1 to 1:30 pm.
Tickets for Hamlet at Capital Repertory Theatre, 111 N. Pearl Street, Albany- $20 to $60 – are available exclusively through Tickets By Proctors at (518) 445-SHOW (7469) or by visiting capitalrep.org. The Box Office at theREP opens two hours before showtime.