.jeri.

A couple of weekends ago, my sister and I excitedly drove to see our first professional (non-school-produced) Shakespearean play. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bust, mostly because the problem with this version of Hamlet was: Hamlet.

It was a small theater, with optimal seating for everyone there, and we looked forward to it. The backdrop seemed to be some sort of giant, fearsome Brueghel painting, and the rest of the set was a simple platform. As it turned out, that simple platform had trap doors and was very easy for the cast jump off of, so one of the things I appreciated was how the fights practically brought some of the action directly into the laps of the audience. For my sister and me, being close--2nd row, left--to the action was great, except that we could see the astounding amounts of spit that left our Hamlet's lips whenever he gave an excited speech (which was often).

The cast and their costumes were all pretty good. I especially enjoyed the effects of the Ghost of Hamlet's father. Our Polonius and Ophelia shined above the rest of the cast, as did the King player, who turned out to be the guy who played the dad in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Wow.

Unfortunately for me, as good as everyone else was, Hamlet isn't Hamlet without its title character, and this one seemed.. well.. gay. He was very effeminate in stature, his costuming made that worse, and his acting skills in the parts where Hamlet acts crazy just worsened the whole thing. Not to mention, he was skinny and greasy. I'm sorry, but I never imagined Hamlet to come across quite so wussy. I was going to keep my opinions to myself, but at intermission, I couldn't help mentioning it to my sister, and she completely agreed with me. So, our little, greasy, spitting Hamlet kind of bombed the whole thing for me. I half expected him to give Horatio a kiss when he died. Bleh.

In the end, it was fun to see a bigger production, but quite honestly, I think I have decided I should probably not try to seek out Hamlet in particular, because I am very partial to Kenneth Branagh's amazing movie production from 1996, which I was fortunate enough to see in all of its 70mm brilliance when it was released. While I watched last week's play, all I could think about during many scenes was how it was done better in Branagh's movie. I think from now on, if I seek out Shakespeare, maybe I should stick to a play that hasn't been made into a movie that I loved.