Bad Hamlet
Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Coin & Ghost
Through August 24
When I first read that a theater company was asking random members of the public what they knew about Hamlet, then incorporating the answers into their performance, it sounded like a risky ploy — but one that might turn out to be interesting or amusing. (God knows the melancholy Dane has withstood every other form of reinterpretation — even The Lion King — so let loose the dogs of war and let’s see what transpires.) Unfortunately, the Coin & Ghost production of Bad Hamlet is an ambitious but frustrating muddle of disparate artistic ideas that never cohere into a greater whole.
To be clear, while this version of the story only loosely follows the traditional plot of Hamlet, the basics are still this: Hamlet’s (Zach Davidson) father, the king, has been murdered by the king’s brother Claudius (Chris Schultz). Claudius has quickly married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude (Lauren Vitz), and is ruling Denmark. Ophelia (Elisa Rosin), the daughter of busybody Polonius (Marguerite French), loves Hamlet but is rebuffed by him. Hamlet, meanwhile, has proof that his father was murdered but hesitates to act.
In general, the actors struggle with the Shakespearian dialogue — which mostly sounds more like a recitation than something actually felt. They fare better in interludes where modern language is used. These are scenes involving the actors’ personal lives that are integrated into the show. For example, as Hamlet, speaking the Bard’s words, Davidson doesn’t quite connect, but a monologue about his sister is straightforward and emotionally affecting. In fact, these personal monologues (especially those by Schultz and Vitz) work better in their simplicity than the rest of the show. French, Hannah Trujillo and Casey Dunn all display talent and have good moments.
Director Rob Adler has no lack of creative ideas, but they vary wildly in quality and execution. His staging of various spin doctors who travel out into the audience to sell their pro-Claudius message is energetic and effective, and a visual recounting of the king’s murder is clever in its use of the ensemble and a table prop. But technically the production often falls short, from video screens that display blank computer prompts to unimpressive live streaming from outside the theater, in which the sound was sometimes so low you couldn’t hear the actor or the actor’s (Davidson) head was out of frame.
The main problem is that all these different techniques — combining modern and classical texts, the use of live video, the inclusion of the performers’ personal stories, the querying of audience members about the play — neither clarify nor amplify Hamlet or create anything satisfyingly new. Beneath all the sound and fury, Hamlet the character becomes unimportant. As a company Coin & Ghost clearly has talent and ambition, but in this production, it’s unclear what the group is trying to say.
New American Theatre, 1312 N. Wilton Pl., Hollywood; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through Aug. 24. www.coinandghost.org/badham. Running time: approximately one hour and 30 minutes, with no intermission.
