Antaeus Theatre Company remains something of a jewel in the Los Angeles Theatre community, a highly (and deservedly) respected group with lots of support and which produced marvelous classic works. I have certainly found their shows just lovely, wonderful, touching.
So they have created some mighty strong expectations. Which means the current production of Hamlet suffers by comparison. Unfairly.
I want to start with the good, which is very good indeed. This show has literally one of the best Laertes (Michael Kirby) I have ever seen, especially since that remains one of the most difficult roles in the whole play. Unlike most Shakespeare productions, I understood almost every single sentence spoken--which to be honest is the norm for Antaeus. Several "lesser" characters were not only good, but excellent such as the Player King (Joel Swetow), and Guildenstern (Sally Hughes). Also, and this is no small thing, the sword fight was good. Cannot tell you how much a bad or poorly rehearsed sword fight has ruined many a Hamlet or other play I've attended over the years. Plus I was genuinely impressed at how this edit retained so much of the play (like Fortinbras!) so often omitted from what is after a very long play.
This makes it sound like I'm about to damn the rest of the production with faint praise. No! Nor will I even praise with faint damnation. I will simply say--it is not uniformly excellent, while never once stopping anything but a good performance.
In fact the only solid criticism I have is that the costumes were a little bland. A little. Not even solidly bland, just kinda/sorta.
On a more subtle point, I did not personally feel or perceive any specific theme or idea in the production, especially in the first half of the first Act. The director's note in the program identifies Hamlet's dilemma in rather boring terms of plot, rather than emotional life of the character. In the very best productions of this play, I know for sure whether Hamlet (Ramon de Ocampo) and Ophelia (Jeanne Syquia) have slept together. In this one, I have a strong suspicion only--which still places this above the vast majority of productions. Likewise I was very impressed with Gertrude (Veralyn Jones), and I thoroughly approve of casting one actor to play both Uncle and Ghost (Gregg T. Daniel). Polonius (Peter Van Norden) remains the most difficult role in the whole play, and I have still seen only two performances in the role I totally believed. One of those was Ian Holm. But this time at least he was genuinely charming, which is a vast improvement.
All of which boils down to complaints about nuance in a production I think otherwise quite good.
Hamlet plays Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, Sundays at 2pm and Mondays at 8pm at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale, CA 91205
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