Hamlet

Overall, this is a first-rate version of the play. Kevin Kline is excellent for the most part, especially when he's being quietly contemptuous and bitterly ironic. He only falters somewhat when trying to express loud rage. At these points (thankfully rare) he bellows in a melodramatic, actorish manner and occasionally rolls around on the floor ala Curly in The Three Stooges.

Special note should be made of Peter Francis James, who plays Horatio. He's excellent as Hamlet's one real friend. His attempt to act like a true "Roman" actually brought a tear to my eye -- the only time I've ever gotten weepy during this particular play.

William Shakespeare's Hamlet directed and starring Kevin Kline.

We have seen this play many times, sometimes abridged, and many adoptions by various artists and groups, such as Sir Laurence Oliver, Richard Burton, Dame Judith Anderson, Nicol Williamson, Richard Chamberlain, Derek Jacobi, Campbell Scott, Mel Gibson, even (icky pooh) Ethan Hawke. Each brings a unique plus that makes it hard to say which is best. And threatened to be played by Shelley Long in "Outrageous Fortune" That said Kevin Kline is top-notch. One attribute is that this version seemingly uncut is spoken clear. Maybe because it is a stage version filmed close enough that they did not have to shout.

When Kevin builds up in the close-up you forget all the trivial things like Hamlet's age. And you actually feel that you are there.

Prince Hamlet loses his father the king. It is unnerving to him that his mother should marry his uncle so soon that the funeral baked meat set the wedding table. Then comes the shocker. His father's ghost suggested that the uncle and wife did him in while asleep. How will hamlet handle this news and what consequence will it have on the people around him?

The New York Shakespearean Festival (and its Great Performances filmed version) may have hit their market, but they missed the mark, beginning with the casting of the primary character. From uncertainties of where his hands should go to his tight and nervous movements, Kline's weepy Hamlet is awkward, much like some of the Hollywood characters he plays.

Michael Cumpsty's Laertes is unsettling, appearing to be the younger brother of Ophelia, his spunky sister. She insists on Hamlet's honorable intentions and screams uncontrollably.

The costumes appear to be dressy-casual wear the cast found in their closets, though Claudius looks like a survival from the days of the British raj, while Laertes seems a strange cross between yuppie and wise guy. Oddly, Gertrude encourages Hamlet to "cast off (his) nighted color," while she herself is clad in a black evening dress.

The set is so bare it's almost naked.

Polonius is the greatest strength in this adapted stage performance, simply because he tends to be the only actor who fully understands the humor and dialogue.

While individual moments and even scenes in this production are strong, on the whole it is somewhat dry, and for students, it may be slightly more effective as an aid to sleep than as a guide to the play.

Hamlet is such a complex world of layers that at a certain level of maturity one develops doorways into it.

For me, these are three, and I bring them to every production, both as a pathway into the universe as it is woven and as a way of evaluating how well the interpreters do.

The name of the play comes not from the son, but the father. It is his thoughts that drive everything. All of young Hamlet's "extra" levels of introspection are generated externally and inserted into an otherwise average soul. If the players don't understand the externally of the reflection, all is lost. Trustworthy legend has it that Shakespeare himself played the Ghost. Naturally.

The second touchstone is Ophelia. As the King enchants his son, so the son enchants his lover. Imagine the situation just before the play begins. We all know the gentle softness of fresh love. We all know the reciprocated obsession of sex, indeed she may be pregnant. We enter the already ruined coupling. For me, if proper attention is given to how she anchors the thing. Especially key is the "flowers" speech. Branaugh got it right and so did Almereyda (for whom this Ophelia was his Gertrude!).

Alas, this play is one that is often hijacked by actors who believe the soul of the thing is in the characters first. Then we get modern notions of inflating a soul who speaks, the exact opposite of how Shakespeare imagined it. And so it is with this production. Actors rarely handle Shakespeare effectively, though I suppose they can produce effective speeches, disconnected from the whole. They actually believe in the story, you see.

Done right, one can enter the splitted layers of consciousness through furcated lust, but not here.

The third touchstone is understanding Wittenberg, the college from whence our hero comes. Elizabethan audiences would know it as the place one would go to study supernatural science. Indeed, most students believe the book Hamlet reads when approached by Polonius shows signs of being such a treatise. The four schoolmates would all have been students of fate and influence. The nutshell gateway, such as it is.

Kline is a fine man. He at least manages the part better than Mel Gibson of the same year, but he never grasps any of the complexities of the play.

I found the camera particularly primitive. Yes, I know this is a stage production into which a camera was invited. But this business of having a camera look at every speaker every time he or she speaks in full face is excessively primitive. Have we learned nothing at all about putting the eye BEHIND the language?

Ted's Evaluation: 1 of 3 -- You can probably find something better to with this part of your life.

Kline slips easily into the role of Hamlet, displaying the humor that Shakespeare gave the character even in the midst of a tragedy, while maintaining elegant poise in tragic scenes.

Unlike the dark sets and Elizabethan costume that dominate many versions of this play, the modern costumes (women in evening gowns, men in military uniform) and sparse sets used by Kline emphasize the interpretation of the script via the actors, not the setting. The actors seize this opportunity vigorously along with Kline, interpreting Shakespeare to provide new insights into age-old characters that have on several occasions slipped into strict stereotypes.

I found this version a bit confusing the first time I watched it as it broke new ground and interpreted in ways that I'd never thought upon to interpret a Shakespearean tragedy. Upon my second viewing, I was able to catch the minute nuances that I had failed to see the first time, adding to the richness and excellence of this version. I look forward to future endeavors by Kline in the realm of Shakespeare (notably: A Midsummer Night's Dream to be released in May 1999)