Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre visits Santa Monica’s Broad Stage for the fourth time this month with a ‘fresh, fast and youthful’ staging of the Bard’s greatest tragedy, Hamlet. Brimming with existential angst, Oedipal impulses, and paranormal activity, this new production has been winning plaudits during their ongoing North American tour.
Key castmember Tom Lawrence told the Santa Barbara Independent last week: “The most common response I’ve received is it’s the most clear production of Hamlet they’ve ever seen. They understood it better than they ever have. In the U.K. in recent years, there has been a fashion for concept-heavy productions. This is a much simpler rendering of the story. It allows you to connect more with the characters.”
“It’s a fairly simple convention,” continued Lawrence, who plays Horatio and several smaller roles. “It harks back to a simpler time. There’s a group of traveling players who can set up wherever they arrive — in a market square, in a field, wherever, and create the world of the play.”
Clocking in at around 2.45, this new, streamlined production means the kids won’t necessarily be squirming in their seats. The production is “a combination of the first quarto and the first folio, which is the edition we’re most familiar with,” Lawrence explained. “The first quarto was compiled by actors who were in the first productions of the plays. They tried to remember their lines, and put them down on paper, often inaccurately.”
“It’s quite a crude edition. But they used elements of it, because it’s very concise in parts, and more direct. They’ve taken a few lines and passages from that to make it really move, without losing any of the amazing poetry or incredible language we come expecting to hear.”
Hamlet plays November 15th-25th at the Broad Stage, with evening and matinee performances. Tickets range from $54-$137. For more details, visit http://thebroadstage.com/Hamlet
Read the Stage and Cinema.com review HERE:
