PLAINFIELD – “Hamlet,” the first of three Shakespeare plays to be presented in the Green Mountain Shakespeare Festival this summer, was performed last weekend by the Plainfield Little Theater at the Plainfield Town Hall Opera House, under the excellent direction of Tom Blachly.
This work has a number of antecedents in its plot, stretching back to the Middle Ages, but Shakespeare wove all those elements into an original tragedy of great dramatic force that remains one of his most extraordinary achievements.
Written in the mid-1590s, it’s still meaningful some four hundred years later through its vivid characters we can identify with, beautiful poetic passages and the way he transcended his own time to create a universal resonance.
In this production, with its impressive casting of all the characters. Fergus Ryan gives a powerful performance as Hamlet, with commanding stage presence that masterfully explores his inner conflicts as he struggles to deal with the eternal human confusion between brutal revenge and true justice.
At the beginning of the play, he discovers from the ghost of his father, the former king of Denmark, that he was poisoned by his own brother, Claudius, while napping in his garden, in order to obtain the throne and marry his wife, Gertrude. The specter orders Hamlet to seek revenge for this hideous crime, which means murdering the foul usurper. But Hamlet’s more melancholy, introverted personality is hardly suited for the formidable task. Realizing that what he has learned about the true cause of his father’s death would endanger himself, he feigns madness and test Claudius’s reactions by a play within a play where in the poisoning is re-enacted.
A subplot is his relationship to Ophelia, which he ends abruptly and cruelly, as part of his mask of insanity, to make himself seem harmless to Claudius and the others of the court.
And thus he dissembles through the convoluted plot until he finally has the opportunity to murder his uncle, but at the cost of several other tragic deaths, including in the end, his own.
Ryan delivers his numerous lines flawlessly, re-enforcing their meaning with expressive body language and appropriate blocking. He is particularly eloquent in the famous soliloquies in which he ponders many of the fundamental questions about life.
But Shakespeare also introduces humor amid the unfolding tragedy, juxtaposing Hamlet’s quirky, riddling dialogue with others to hide his true thoughts.
Michael Keene portrays Claudius with great skill, who represents corrupt authoritarian power, achieved by unpunished criminality, which he only furthers by plotting to have Hamlet killed.
Susannah Blachly well-embodies Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, a contradictory figure of whom it is never quite clear whether she conspired with Claudius to poison her own husband.
Carl Etnier brings to life Polonius, the lord chamberlain, a bumbling soul whose advice to his son is quite comical. His daughter, Ophelia, is acted with impressive talent by Alex Yahm-Halberg, especially in the challenging mad scenes, which are difficult to make convincing. Her impetuous brother, Laertes, is carefully depicted by Caleb Paige, and he and Hamlet engage in a spectacular sword fight to the death.
Evan Lewis is consistently in character as Horatio, Hamlet’s loyal friend and confidant.
Other supporting actors who are very well cast in their roles are Calvin Lane as Francisco, a member of the court conveying messages; Jim Thompson as Bernado and Susan Loynd as Marcellus and Fortinbras, a nephew of the King of Norway; two soldiers, Patrick Cope as Rosencrantz and Wesley Grove as Guildenstern, two courtiers and accomplices of Claudius; Adrian Wade-Kenney, David Klein and Calvin Lane as the three amusing roving actors in the play-within-a-play; Chris Pratt as the ghost of Hamlet’s father and Jim Thompson as a Norwegian captain and the marvelous gravedigger.
The production of “Hamlet” will continue next weekend on Thursday, June 25, Friday, June 26 and Saturday, June 27, at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, June 28, at 2 p.m.
Don’t miss this exceptional performance: it’s as good as Shakespeare gets.
For more information, call (802) 793-2092 or go online at [email protected]
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
