Accessible, trimmed ‘Hamlet’ emotionally engages viewers
A version of “Hamlet” that was not only unusually accessible, but engaged spectators in strong emotional terms, was staged Thursday at the Myriad Botanical Gardens Water Stage, 301 W Reno Ave.
The Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park production of William Shakespeare’s masterpiece will be offered at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and Sept. 28-30.
Luke Eddy as Hamlet was less elegant and inscrutable than he was “hands on,” forceful and energetic, in getting across his character’s raw, often contradictory — at times almost heavy-handed — responses.
Sometimes seeming to enjoy being a catalyst and “loose cannon” at court a little too much, Eddy could be a royal pain in the neck in the demanding title role.
This was true whether Eddy as Hamlet was verbally abusing Ophelia, mocking courtiers or lecturing a traveling troupe of actors on acting, a little like Polonius giving unwanted advice to his children.
But Eddy did ultimately win over the audience to his quixotic cause — with a powerful assist from the loudly amplified offstage voice of the apparition, his murdered father, urging Hamlet to avenge him.
Julia Waits made a memorable Ophelia, trying hard to love Hamlet, but finding that impossible before descending into madness, as if it were contagious, and singing silly songs to herself.
Mark Branson was wonderfully stuffy and clueless as Polonius, pointing out that “brevity is the soul of wit,” then not coming to the point, while Jeffery Ambrosini seemed more sanctimonious than magnetically evil as Claudius.
Cutting a regal figure in long period dresses, Kathryn McGill conveyed the mixed emotions of Hamlet’s
mother well, deeply torn between love for her son, and demands of her self-interested marriage to his uncle.
Daniel C. Brown brought the right raw anger to Laertes, and Isaiah Williams communicated the staunch, heroic, almost larger-than-life devotion of Horatio to his friend Hamlet.
Sarah Lomize had some good moments in cameo roles as the player queen and Osric, a courtier browbeaten by Hamlet over whether it’s warm or cold, and for doffing her hat too ceremoniously.
Running over two and a half hours including an intermission, despite being cut considerably, “Hamlet” was a 15-round slugfest, yet one which made it worth waiting for the grim finale.