The young Prince Hamlet has returned to Denmark, only to discover his father’s brother Claudius, following King Hamlet’s death, has married his mother and appropriated the throne. This marriage took place right away. The couple aren’t exactly sitting Shiva. Hamlet is devastated. A couple of sentries on the graveyard shift has seen apparitions of a ghost who resembles the deceased King. Hamlet accompanies them the next night, and sure enough, it’s his dad. He accuses Claudius of murdering him in his sleep, pouring a dose of poison in his ear. Father demands that Hamlet avenge him. As an act of cunning Hamlet devises to feign insanity, giving him the upper hand in confronting his uncle. As the play marches forward, though we begin to wonder if he’s still faking. If he’s unwittingly acting out the absurdity of existence.
The crux of Hamlet is profound despair. His father’s dead, his uncle and mother (for all practical purposes) are committing incest, not to mention assassination. This happens between the family, and gone unpunished. Nobody seems to have noticed. Or perhaps it’s apathy. Hamlet is utterly baffled and distraught. What kind of world, of cosmos do we inhabit
when man, with propensity for nobility and kindness, would seek out depravity? Hamlet discovers this dismal truth of life and humanity. How do we reconcile conscience, drowning in a fractured and pervasive rejection of grace. He’s not sure he can go on. Ironically, the methods of revenge often involve the amorality he denounces. He calls his Mother a whore. He leads Ophelia on, then does a 180, with no explanation. By play’s end, it’s a nihilistic mashup of the ridiculous and chaotic.
The Classics Theatre Project, in the fine tradition of shifting the milieu to contemporary times, is at once intriguing and strange. Unlike the earlier, elaborate setting for TCTP’s Oleanna, Hamlet is minimal, achieving the scene with say, chairs and props. The dialogue feels reasonably spontaneous; the emotion palpable. Facetiousness is woven throughout. The insufferable, didactic Polonious, the comedic banter of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, amusing.
The peripheral music carried a somber bathos that would drive you to drink. Hamlet, I’m sure, must be a nightmare to stage. The hopelessness, the wordplay, the nonsense, the cruelty. The love lost to rage, to desperation, to forfeited tenderness. Under Joey Folsom’s keen intuition and clarity of execution, TCPT’S Hamlet is an unforgettable, disconsolate experience.
The Classics Theatre Project presents: Hamlet, playing October 25th-November 23rd, 2024. Stone Cottage Theater: 15650 Addison Road, Addison, Texas 75001. (214) 923-3619 theclassicstheatreproject.com