Review: HAMLET by Trinity University, San Antonio
by Michael Meigs
Trinity University's Dr. Stacey Connelly has taken on an audacious challenge: staging Shakespeare's Hamlet for the first time in the theatre program's 56-year history. This is Shakespeare's longest play, with texts published postumously in quarto and folio editions that hardly matched at all. Combining these, editors constructed the revered "complete text." Connelly appears to have staged that version, which runs three and a half hours, including about twenty minutes of break for intermission and scene shifts.
That colossal undertaking is mesmerising for anyone familiar with Hamlet, either from textual study or Kenneth Branaugh's striking film of the full text. For undergraduate audiences unfamiliar with the play, the length and the language may well be too much. The half row of bros to my left disappeared at the intermission after Act II, and at a later pause I overheard undergraduates debating what exactly had just happened when Hamlet confronted Gertrude in her chambers.
The cast of 39 actors had no doubts at all about the language, the length, or the deep themes contained in Shakespeare's most famous work. Director Connelly and her verse and voice coach David Connelly brought them all to deliver the verse flawlessly, almost always in natural speech patterns, and to move confidently through the convolutions of the plot.
Anna Kate Vaughan's Hamlet was swift, articulate, and intentional. Hers was no melancholy Dane; peppy throughout, she was quick of wit and keen of tongue. In soliloquies Vaughan shifted effortlessly, showing us Hamlet's obsessively inquisitive focus without ever lapsing into a brood. Such quicksilver delivery can bewilder the unwary or uninformed in the audience; to those who know the text, it's an enormous pleasure. This was a thoroughly contemporary Hamlet.
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Also impressively articulate and precisely differentiated was Nathan Pearce both as the ghost of the murdered king and as the irreverent gravedigger. Eleanor Distel as Ophelia showed impressive stage presence and mastery of the transformation and blighting of that tender character; the mad scene was particularly affecting. Jonathan Wang as the head of the Players of the City, the Player King, and the disaffected Norwegian captain evidenced fine projection and vocal control.
The players named above particularly stood out, but other principals came close to them. Lily Calvert's anguish as Queen Gertrude when confronted by her son so radiated that one felt almost betrayed when she confided in King Claudius afterward. Liam Brinks as Claudius was emphatic throughout but not empathetic, as befitted the self-obsessed villain of the piece.
And so many more: Kunsh Tyagi as Rosencrantz and Genevieve Ellis as a curiously cane-swinging Guildenstern; Miles Rojas-Castle as Laertes and Jorge Morfin as Horatio; Zoe Nolan as the Player Queen.
Struggles and fight sequences planned by Austin's Tobie Minor were well delivered and convincing. The decision for Hamlet to wrestle with Ophelia in Hamlet's Get thee to a nunnery harangue was both a surprise and entirely apt to the conflict portrayed in the scene.
Costumes by Kelly Grengs were appropriate, though uniforms seemed a bit gaudy. This was partly explained in the lobby display, which stated that the action was set in the 1800's. Martha Peñaranda's set was generally functional, with the exception of the long traverse required for characters to enter at height from behind the partition at stage center and descend to the main playing area.
Director Connelly often sent actors all the way downstage to seat themselves on the apron, which was welcome though disconcerting for those of us in the forward rows. At times this approach worked well, especially for Hamlet. However, when Claudius plotted with Laertes, it seemed odd that His August Majesty would plop his bottom onto the floorboards and it was a bit awkward for him to scramble back to his feet afterward.
In sum: thoughtfully conceived, extremely well cast, and faithful to the reconstructed full text of Shakespeare's great work, this production was well worth the long and difficult drive from and back to Austin. Congratulations to all involved . . . and, by the way, don't miss the two video promos for the piece!
EXTRAS:
Click HERE to view the program for Trinity University's production of Hamlet
VIDEO PROMOS
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
Trinity University
November 8 - 16, 2024
All evening performances of HAMLET begin at 7 pm, in the Stieren Theatre. The Sunday matinee, on Nov. 10, begins at 2:30 pm.
Reservations can be made here.
Stieren Theatre, Trinity University, San Antonio
