#SHAKESPERIENCE IN THE PARK: HAMLET

Hamlet is considered William Shakespeare’s most tragic play on grief and revenge, marking this as one of his ‘great moments of achievement’.  The story sets up after the death of King Hamlet in the city of Elsinore and parallels how societies can be dominated by the escalation of politics of fear. Its the sighting of King Hamlet’s spirit by Horatio (Sarah Finn) that sets off a series of events to further fan the flames of fear. His son, Hamlet (Paolo Santalucia), is brought to see his spirit and to learn that he was murdered by his very own uncle, Claudius (Jon de Leon). The same uncle who has married King Hamlet’s widow, Gertrude (Nehassaiu deGannes), and who has inherited his throne. After learning of this treason Hamlet gets mad and vows revenge, but not before turning into a nutcase and weirding out the people surrounding him. Hamlet turns against his love interest Ophelia (Natasha Mumba), accidentally kills Polonius (Richard Allen Campbell) and tries to set up a plan to prove Claudius murdered his father while trying to not get murdered himself. It’s like having one of those days you wish you just stayed in bed.

The costumes for the play have been tastefully updated with the exception of Christopher Darroch’s (Laertes/Rosencrantz) who had his pants tucked into his socks for the whole thing.That’s how I could identify him when he was on stage. Everything was minimalist and modernized. It was cool how actors harmonized the background music together between each scene as they helped set it up. Not only did it show off the depth of their talent, but it also showed how organized the production was. Almost everything went off without a hitch, aside from when the sound system gave out a bit once and awhile.

There were minor deviations from the script to modernize it with no consequence to the quality of production. If anything they were refreshing and funny as I’m sure most people have studied Hamlet in their school career. My favourite was Hamlet, himself, who at times came across a little badass when confronting his enemies. He even threw in a li’l sideways middle finger that got the crowd laughing, including the little children. The acting was superb and never overdone,  which is something I usually fear going into a Shakespearean production.

Hamlet is a part of the Bard’s Bus Tour put on by Driftwood Theatre from July 9 – August 16 in various cities across Ontario.

[Photography by David Spowart]