Hamlet by The Stratford Festival
Review by Anar M., Youth Reviewer
I went to see the Stratford Festival’s production of “Hamlet” last Friday, and I think it’s impressively well done.
Coming into the play, the main thing I knew was that the actor for Hamlet was a woman, although the character would remain male. But watching the play, that fact seemed essentially irrelevant. The gender of the actor doesn’t affect the skill of their acting, and I think Amaka Umeh evokes Hamlet impeccably. Umeh’s Hamlet is energetic and constantly in motion, which makes his lack of action to avenge his father all the more interesting. He’s almost frantic at times, moving dramatically and abruptly between moods and positions. I found the interpretation fascinating.
Shakespeare’s original “Hamlet”, if performed at full length, would last something like five hours, which means that all productions have to cut parts out and change things. The difficulty is in deciding which parts to remove. I’m not well enough acquainted with the original text to know exactly which scenes were removed and which were left, but the fundamental point of the play was still conveyed, although the performance was closer to two hours than five.
Several director’s choices were intriguing and well-placed. Hamlet begins the play wearing black, but his changes of clothing grow progressively paler until he’s wearing all white in the play’s final scene. The setting is modern, with earbuds and phones replacing other forms of eavesdropping and letters. This allows for several moments of silent humour, such as when Ophelia pulls out a phone and begins texting Hamlet. Guns are the main weapon, rather than swords, which for me dramatically increased the feeling of genuine danger. Swords, to the modern audience, are just props; guns carry more association of danger, although of course the guns on stage weren’t actually dangerous. I think the change to a modern setting is quite effective.
The stage also had some cool effects. A coffin has a tablecloth draped over it to become a table. In a later scene, Hamlet yanks the tablecloth off, and so the audience expects to see the coffin, but the body is gone to leave just a regular table. At various points, bodies are visible in the floor, although only some of the actors can see them. It’s a good use of modern stage props.
Unfortunately, the performance I saw was the last showing of the season, so I can’t recommend that you go watch it. But I still affirm that Stratford’s production is an innovative and interesting one.
Find “Hamlet” at the Kitchener Public Library!