Contrary to most other drama students, I have not seen William Shakespeare’s Hamlet a thousand times over. I have been around this play enough to know that any actor invoking the classic “to be or not to be” in an audition room is not very likely to be taken seriously. Hamlet, to some, is old hat. Even in the most recent blockbuster attempt starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the titular role, Hamlet himself falls into the same old routine: grieve over dead father, throw some women around, die a tragic death. However, a few weekends ago, I had the privilege to see a production of Hamlet that dared to break those traditions and to strive to reach new ground. Bonneville Theater Company, which is largely composed of New School MFA graduates, had the guts to turn Hamlet on its head, and throw it into a church while they were at it.
In an unassuming little church on Christopher Street in the West Village, director Alex Keuchler Caffall created a new Hamlet. She took the script and brushed the dust off of the pages, breathing life into words repeated so often that they often carry with them to connotations of stuffy English professors talking down to bored, half dead students. Kuechler Caffall gave the audience a Prince Hamlet that lives in a 1990s evangelical church group, dressing the rest of the cast in equally dated clothing and playing Christian music from the decade that truly invokes the atmosphere of the 90s. It was incredible to me how perfectly clear that was, especially given the failed attempts that I have seen by other directors to communicate such a nuanced placement of time and story. The entire church was alive. Every space that was not occupied by audience members was playing space, which meant that the audience became part of the action. The aisle of the church was the most heavily utilized place, and it allowed the audience to watch actors make their large, dramatic crosses, and build tension. It is not often that people experience theater without the comfort of the distance of the stage. The actors became real people, their characters more human. The most striking thing to me about the production was that the story was fresh. It was not told as if Hamlet had already died. The moments of lightness between the characters – the wedding celebration, the kisses shared between the lovers, the jokes and laughter – helped carry the story along, though the darkness was always underneath. The placement of the play in the 1990s also made it more accessible to the audience. It was no longer some stuffy castle somewhere in Denmark. It was a church, something familiar, and the 90s, something looked back on with both nostalgia and chagrin. The direction was expertly handled, and made for an interesting and engaging piece of theater.
The cast also had a major hand in creating something new out of such an old play. Hamlet (Tyler Caffall) was not just a mad prince raving up and down the halls of his castle, killing left and right until he finally gets to the right murder. He was tender, and quiet. There were moments of stillness that made him approachable and understandable. His playing of the tortured soliloquies had me honestly questioning whether or not Hamlet was mad for the first time in a long time. Even after having seen it more than once, I still found myself captivated by his transformation. His ultimate demise is quiet and soft – like himself, at some points. It was a real Hamlet, a Hamlet that I could meet on the street corner, as opposed to one I would have to go digging through history textbooks to find. Claudius and Gertrude (Kelly King and Barbara Weetman) were absolute treasures on stage. King crafted a truly evil Claudius, though it was not clear at the outset. His begging for help from angels for forgiveness from his murder stirred real pity from the audience that was eventually completely crushed. He was imposing and powerful, always in control until it was successfully wrested away from him by the inherent chaos of the text. Weetman gave a stirring performance as the only truly regal Gertrude that I have ever seen. She was a queen to be reckoned with, a force all on her own. She was not a prop to be thrown about by the men. She stood up for herself and the others in the play, innocent and marvelous until her horrible, gruesome death. Laertes (Leif Steinert) is not just a brother driven insane with the lust for revenge. He is an honest, smart, engaging man. Stoic to a fault, he truly came alive in the second act. The death of his sister truly strikes a blow, as does the loss of his father. For the first time, I felt Laertes’ pain and loss. I was able to see the human emotion, instead of focusing on the blinding anger that drives him to vengeance. This Laertes was like a circling shark – dangerous, full of pain, and ready to strike. Horatio (Jeff Gonzalez) is a true friend to Hamlet, instead of just a foil who runs around after him like a lovesick puppy. He was charismatic and energetic; the eye followed him even when the action was elsewhere on stage. He was the audience’s in-man, and an excellent guide to the world of the play. Polonius (Christopher Hurt) was a stodgy old man, but with a more entertaining side as well. He became a sort of clown, and every scene with him in it was an absolute treat to watch. Ophelia (Lindsey Trout Hughes) had the most dramatic character shift from what I had seen before. Hughes made her stop being a prop. She became a person in her own right, not needing Hamlet’s acknowledgement to exist. There was a real love between her and Hamlet, not just a feigned relationship to egg her on to her eventual suicide. Watching her act was heartbreaking. She was like a little bird being crushed by the world around her, a victim of fate. Her death brought tears to my eyes, and she was possibly the only sympathetic Ophelia that I will ever lay eyes on.
The supporting cast was top notch as well, adapting their characters to the time period with ease. Marcellus (David Thomas Riley) was a comic relief in a way, but also helped to drive the action. Ever present, he was a real joy for the audience to watch. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Danielle Purdy and Arisael Rivera) were a hilarious duo, though they absolutely lived in their more serious moments, helping to make real the damage that Hamlet’s feigned (?) madness was causing. The Gravedigger (Aundrey Ligon) was a pivotal character once again. His wit was charming and his dialogue revealing, making the language a bit easier for the audience to process. He had a fantastic singing voice, and was captivating whenever he was on stage.
I normally try to avoid reinterpretations of Shakespeare plays. I tend to prefer them in their original form – in a large castle somewhere, with hugely puffed up period costumes, or sticking directly to the original visions that the text provides. This Hamlet, however, has changed that about me. After leaving with such an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and entertainment, I want to see more. I want to see what Kuechler Caffall is able to dream up in her next production, Shakespeare or no. I want to see where Bonneville is going to go from here, I want to see what text they are going to tackle next. If you were able to see this show while it ran, then you saw something incredibly rare. You saw a production team and cast with the bravery to go where no one else had gone before. A production team and cast that was willing to toss off the trappings of Hamlet and what it entailed and to dare to find what was fresh and relevant within those centuries-old words and pages. It was an absolute pleasure to watch, and something that I feel will be missing from more commercial theater for a long time. In a time like this, and with the direction our country is headed, we need more theater like this. Theater that dares to break with convention and take its audiences to new places. And that is exactly what Bonneville accomplished. An excellent evening, and I, for one, will be watching out for them in the future.
