The brooding Danish prince, played by Gabriel Vaughan, soliloquizes at his laptop in American Stage Theatre’s production of “Hamlet.”
ST. PETERSBURG - Director Todd Olson’s abridged, unconventional version of “Hamlet” plays through March 30 at American Stage Theatre, 211 Third St. S., St. Petersburg.
Performances are Tuesday through Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. Matinees are Saturday and Sunday, 3 p.m. Tickets range from $22 to $35. Call 823-7529 or visit www.americanstage.org.
Setting foot in the theater, long before the actors take the stage, Frank Chavez’s Spartan, dramatic set design is the first indication that Olson is exploring new territory with a play written some 400 years ago. Olson manipulates chronological time, preserving the beauty of Shakespeare’s language and retaining both Elizabethan components and allusions to 12th century Danish history while introducing contemporary elements.
Hamlet, for instance, has a laptop: His soliloquies become journal entries, perhaps destined to be posted on his blog. Polonius carries a cell phone which, of course, goes off in the middle of the play within a play.
It comes as a bit of shock when the first words uttered by Hamlet (played by Gabriel Vaughan) are “To be or not to be,” from the pseudo-existential speech that in fact does not occur until Act 3. Keep in mind that a full production of the play would take four hours, so editing “Hamlet” down to a manageable size is nothing new.
Rearranging the Bard’s work … well, that’s another story. But Olson has a firm grasp on this tale of grief-spawned rage and his revisionist approach is both functional and aesthetically appropriate.
It’s Hamlet’s vision of his father’s ghost that sets him on the path of vengeance. The surreal scene in which the ghost confronts Hamlet is the stuff of nightmares: The ghost, projected on stage, seems to overwhelm the entire theater. Accompanied by chilling sound effects, it may be the most unsettling execution of this exchange ever rendered.
Vaughan makes no effort to paint Hamlet as a charming prince – and there’s no need, since Hamlet needn’t be amiable to capture the sympathy of the audience. On the contrary, Vaughan reveals the character’s darker side, reveling in Shakespeare’s acerbic wit as he mocks other characters and summoning up inner demons as he wrestles with the philosophical issues of premeditated murder.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, portrayed by Chris Rutherford and T. Scott Wooten, are luminously geeky, a pair of oblivious dupes guided by forces they cannot perceive.
Jim Wicker is a most professional Polonius, the embodiment of a meddling disposition whose conniving gets the better of him. Wicker’s depiction seems a little less reckless, a little more manipulative than many modern interpretations.
Strong performances also come from Jessica K. Peterson, playing Gertrude, and Steven Clark Pachosa, playing Claudius, who serve as anchors by delivering more traditional renderings of their characters.
During a recent preview, Katherine Michelle Tanner – the actress portraying Opheila – was under the weather. She was replaced at the last minute by stand-in Meg Heimstead. Under the circumstances, Heimstead did a spectacular job and helped avert what could have been a disastrous evening.
Olson has put an avant-garde spin on “Hamlet” without sacrificing the intensity of the tale or the beauty of the language. His product – call it “alternative Shakespeare” – offers further evidence of the Bard’s brilliance: Four centuries later, his work is still as relevant and user-friendly as it is incomparable and extraordinary.
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