Review: Hamlet (at Boggy Creek Cemetary) by Black Swan Productions
by Michael Meigs

Justin Scalise as Hamlet is intent and impressive.  AustinLiveTheatre had that to say and more in the September 25  ALT review of essentially this same production as presented downtown at the Scottish Rite Theatre -- in all too short a run and with a curtailed final week. 

This staging is by Black Swan Events.  The swan is new hatched and because of the surprisingly poorly attendance at the  Scottish Rite staging, it's new fledged, as well.  Perhaps to their surprise, and certainly to mine, Hamlet turned out not to be an automatic break-down-the-doors success downtown, despite the impressive acting triple play Scalise-to-Babs George-to-Harvey Guion, supported by that canny and adept cast. Perhaps some folks see Hamlet as one of those "difficult" Shakespeare plays, unpleasantly full of brooding and plotting.

The swans have been working to counter that.  Mike Lee at KUT-FM gave them his occasional two-minute slot at Arts Eclectic last week and Lisa Sheps at KOOP-FM had them on for twelve minutes on her weekly Off Stage and On the Air (see below for those embedded audio bits).

Director Andrew Matthews replaces Guion as the usurping Claudius, giving a slightly different flavor to that triple play.  Matthews is visibly closer in age to Scalise's Hamlet, which is entirely plausible -- making him  a much younger brother to the murdered king, with plenty of manly energy and lots of interesting possibilities for the back story.  Ashley Edwards is an ageless Gertrude, sharp of profile and sharp of presence, highly aware of her own precarious position.  Both Matthews and Edwards are confident and convincing in their roles.

The rest of the cast is unchanged, still dedicated to bringing this primal story to our consciousness.

The venue, however, could not be more different.  From the painted and brightly lit world of the Scottish Rite Theatre, with a keen smell of 19th century assurance, the play has moved to the grounds of the Masonic Cemetery in south Austin.

Yes, it's Halloween weekend, but this is not Hamlet in the catacombs or Hamlet amongst the gravestones.  The company sets its scene beneath an immense old oak, informally dubbed "The Duke's Oak" by Scalise.  The playing area is defined by carpets, and the wide, deep bring-your-own-seating area on a grassy space is divided by the two rows of flickering candles that define a middle aisle and additional playing space.  Bring your own folding chair or picnic blanket. 

At 6:30 p.m., an hour before the opening scene, cemetery supervisor Dale Flatt offers a knowledgeable, wry and informative walking tour of the cemetery proper, tidily spread out behind the Duke's Oak.  The light fades as he tells his stories, and one understands for a time the atmosphere that attracted Scalise to the place.  That feeling is further reinforced by the flaring propane lanterns, carefully shuttered and directed, that hang at the edges of the playing space. 

The dead sleep on well out of our sight in this timeless place as these abstract chronicles evoke the timeless story of Hamlet.  Not all is tranquil, however.  The Masonic Cemetary is less than a quarter of a mile west of I-35, and throughout the evening the story unrolls beside an aural tapestry of traffic noises, acceleration, and the occasional surprise of a honk or a siren. 

You have to earn your trip to Shakespeare's imagined world by mentally surpressing the insistent, incessant sounds of Texas on the go.  These players make that possible, always.  As before at the Scottish Rite Theatre, their pace is rapid and intense, requiring the audience to concentrate on the words and on the story. In this setting and in these circumstances, that is quite the best way to proceed.

Review by Kate Blouke for the Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, October 25

Review by Spike Gillespie at her blog Spike Speaks, October 27

Review by Ryan E. Johnson at examiner.com, November 3

EXTRAS

Click to view the program for Hamlet at Boggy Creek Cemetery by Black Swan Events: Part 1; Part 2 

Hits as of 2015 03 01: 8355

Additional images by Kimberley Mead:

Hamlet (at Boggy Creek Cemetary)
by William Shakespeare, adapted by Jill K. Swanson
Black Swan Productions