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The Gangbusters Theater Company Presents Hamlet
By Jonathan Weichsel
Forget for a moment that one of Gangbusters' trademarks is free beer at every performance. Forget that their slogan is "dedicated to staging the modern classics with their original speed and violence." Forget all of the irreverent marketing gimmicks of this slightly eccentric theater company now in its seventh season. Their recent production of Hamlet, playing through August 17th at the Little Victory Theater, holds up without them.
What makes the production work is that in spite the fact that it is set in a mental hospital, it remains more or less faithful to the text. Of course, in a two hour performance of a three and a half hour play you have to pick and choose what to focus on. The Gangbusters Theater Company very wisely chooses to focus on the elements of Hamlet that resonate the most with modern audiences: the ghost of Hamlet's father, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the play within a play, Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia, Ophelia's descent into madness and eventual suicide, and of course, the big bloody ending.
I cannot say that this is the greatest production of Hamlet I have ever seen, but then again, I was privileged to witness the three and a half hour staging at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 2000 with Liev Schreiber in the title role. I can say however, that this is probably the most accessible and easy to understand productions of Shakespeare I have ever seen. Based on conversations I overheard during intermission, much of the audience was unfamiliar with Shakespeare (I even overheard a woman explaining to the man she was with that the play was originally not set in a mental hospital). But even so, everybody seemed to get into it. Simple staging and direct, intentional acting can go a long way towards making Shakespeare work for a modern audience. Director D.D. Thomas very wisely takes the production in this direction, as opposed to the more obscurantist direction taken by many similar productions of Shakespeare.
Christian Levatino, sporting a Mohawk, plays Hamlet as a deranged punk mental patient. Early on in the production he spits out his meds, and the rest of the play veers in and out of his head. At times he resorts to scene chewing, but so do most actors playing Hamlet, a madman who believes that he is only feigning madness. The roll seems to call for a bit of melodrama, and Levatino delivers it unapologetically, without any pretensions.
Sierra Fisk is wonderful as Ophelia. Many actresses play the roll too heavily, and it takes all the sympathy away from the character. Because Fisk plays the roll without all of the foreboding that usually goes along with it, her eventual suicide carries more emotional weight.
Purists should not be scared away from this production because it is set in a mental hospital. It has been established for a long time now that Shakespeare's poetry can at times work better when you abstract it slightly by removing it from its original context. If I have one major criticism about this production, it is that it doesn't take enough risks with the text, and remains too true to the source material.
In short, The Gangbusters Theater Company Presents Hamlet is a great introduction to Shakespeare for the uninitiated, but still holds something of value for those familiar with Shakespeare's work. If you have an acquaintance or friend who you have been dying to introduce to the Bard's work, this is a perfect opportunity to do so in a fun setting.
The set design, evoking a dilapidated mental hospital with a wheel chair, a coal radiator, a large master electrical switch and flypaper, is minimalist but functional.
The Gangbusters Theater Company Presents Hamlet is playing through August 17th at the Little Victory Theater, 3326 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505. For reservations call (818) 841-5422. The show runs through August 17, 2008, Friday and Saturday at 8, Sunday at 4. Admission is $20 with advance reservation, $25 without.