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written by William Shakespeare,

directed by Graham McLaren

Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Enwave Theatre, Toronto

November 19-29, 2009

Necessary Angel promises its new production of Hamlet will be “a radical re-visioning of one of the world’s greatest plays.”  Scottish director Graham McLaren has drastically pared down the text to achieve an intermissionless two-hour running time, tossing out such favourite scenes as Polonius’ advice to his son and the Gravediggers’ Scene.  Otherwise, his Hamlet is not so much “radical” as superficial and mediocre. 

Hamlet says that “All Denmark is a prison.”  To McLaren it seems all Denmark is a pigsty.  The single set, also designed by McLaren, is filled with rental furniture heaped with the leftovers and dirty dishes of Claudius’ and Gertrude’s wedding feast of take-out food and cans of pop and beer.  Either the royals of Denmark have fired all the servants or events progress at such a rapid pace that no one has time to clean up the mess so that even for the duel between Hamlet and Laertes at the end, the two have to kick detritus out of the way to fight.  Other directors have set tragedies amidst piles of junk to show that the present is still encumbered with the past or to indicate that beauty or nobility can bloom in a place inimical to either.  Here, in McLaren's nihilist view, the many bodies littering the floor at the end simply add to the trash already there.

Our feelings might be different if we had been given the chance to know or care about any of the characters, but McLaren’s pacing and deletions make this almost impossible.  The performances are mixed.  Set sometime between the 1960s and ‘80s, Gord Rand’s Hamlet begins as a geeky-looking slacker who complains about revenging his father’s death as if it were just too much work.  Much to Rand’s credit, his Hamlet is able to progress from such an unpromising beginning to achieve a real sense of growth and dignity by his “fall of a sparrow” speech.  Also excellent is Gray Powell as “Guildencrantz” (yes, the amalgamation of both friends), who serves much more as the a rational Horatio figure than does Steven McCarthy’s Horatio-as-non-entity.  Most memorable of all, however, is Eric Peterson’s humourless, neofascist Polonius, who more than Claudius, becomes the real embodiment of evil in the play.

For the most part Benedict Campbell as Claudius reins in his tendency to bluster and is especially fine in the Chapel Scene.  Neither Laura de Carteret as Gertrude nor Tara Nicodemo as Ophelia know how to project and Christopher Morris gives us a one-note Laertes.  Anyone expecting a “re-visioning” of Hamlet as radical as that presented by Eimuntas Nekrosius at World Stage 2002 will be disappointed.  There Hamlet said “To be or not to be” while standing on a block of ice with a buzz-saw overhead.  Here, Rand merely tries to asphyxiate himself with a plastic bag.  No, this Hamlet is best suited to those who, unlike Shakespeare’s prince, are impatient with contemplation and just want to see the action done with as quickly as possible.   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2009-11-20.

Photo: Gord Rand. ©Michael Cooper.