I Was Hamlet

Reviewed by Vanessa Cate
Post Mortem Movement Theater at Actors Company (Other Space Theater)
Through June 25

Post Mortem Movement Theater’s adaptation of Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine is an almost purely visceral experience. The audience is welcomed into a black box theater, sans seats, and is encouraged to wander through the space, move between the actors, and to keep their cell phones handy.

The members of the ensemble, directed by Angela Lopez with impressive choreography and 360-degree action, overlap each other, support each other, and interweave among each other and the audience. Certainly this piece is full of anger and sweat and yelling, but amid the torrent of aggression there are some mesmerizing moments. Emily Josephine as Ophelia/Elektra is a phenomenal actress, and Stephen Beitler’s acrobatic Horatio is hypnotic.

The direction takes a turn two thirds through the play, however. While attempting to put a spin on Müller’s original piece, the momentum completely dies as Angel Correa, who’d been playing Hamlet, speaks casually to the audience while everyone else remains seated. What had been riveting swiftly becomes tedious, falling short (I’m sure) of the vision either Müller or Lopez imagined.

Actors Company (Other Space Theater), 916 N. Formosa Ave., Hollywood; https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/3614 Running time: Approximately 55 minutes with no intermission.