Live and in person produced by Canadian Stage at the Amphitheatre of High Park, Toronto, Ont. until Sept. 1, 2024.
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Jessica Carmichael.
Set and costumes by Joshua Quinlan
Lighting by Logan Raju Cracknell
Sound and composed by Chris Ross-Ewart
Cast: Prince Amponsah
Raquel Duffy
Christo Graham
Stephen Jackman-Torkoff
Sam Khalilieh
Qasim Khan
Breton Lalama
Beck Lloyd
Diego Matamoros
Dan Mousseau
Amelia Sargisson
James Dallas Smith
A concept that is not supported by the play unless it’s cut to pieces, with speeches re-arranged and other references inserted, resulting in a mess. Some good acting though.
The Story. While Hamlet is William Shakespeare’s most famous play, one cannot assume everyone knows the story. I was surprised when the woman of certain years sitting in front of me said she never saw the play. She never read it but sort of knew the story. So let me give you a precis.
There is turmoil in Denmark. The king, Hamlet Sr. has died suddenly. Within two months, Hamlet Sr.’s wife, Gertrude, has married her husband’s brother, Claudius. Were they having an affair when King Hamlet Sr. was alive? I’ve always assumed that. Was there a tradition that if a man dies, then the brother of the deceased steps in and marries her to protect her? Some cultures have that tradition. I’ll stick with the former—Gertrude and Claudius were having an affair. In any case Hamlet Sr. and Gertrude’s son Hamlet has come home from university to attend his father’s funeral. He’s naturally grieving but he’s also angry since his mother re-married so quickly.
Hamlet learns from his friend Horatio and others of the court, that the ghost of Hamlet Sr. has been seen wandering the ramparts of the castle and they are terrified. Hamlet is determined to talk to the ghost. When Hamlet does talk to the ghost, he learns that his father was murdered by Claudius. So Hamlet, the younger, plans to avenge his father’s death.
There are other sub-plots—Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, a young woman of the court, but it’s a fraught relationship. Other friends of Hamlet are in cahoots with Claudius to get rid of Hamlet. So lots of intrigue. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The Production. The production is directed by Jessica Carmichael.She read an article suggesting that the play is about grief and she has based her whole production on this emotion. Both Hamlet and Ophelia are grieving over the deaths of their fathers. Ophelia is also experiencing confused feelings about Hamlet’s treatment of her. She misses her brother, Laertes, her champion, who has gone to France.
So director Jessica Carmichael has decided that the play is about grief—not revenge as has been the interpretation in the past; not anger, disappointment, seeing both sides of an argument equally and not being able to make a decision on either side of the argument. Nope, grief is what Hamlet is about to Ms Carmichael.
Usually a play done in High Park has to be cut down to fit into a 90 minute-no-intermission paying time. An uncut Hamlet is 4 hours and 15 minutes. This production of Hamletactually runs for 115 minutes, with no intermission. This version of the play is not cut as much as it is hacked to death or chopped up. I get the sense that if a speech does not fit into Jessica Carmichael’s concept/idea, then she cuts it and replaces it with other references that do fit her concept.
She inserted poems or lines from 15 poems often about grief or death. Works by Walt Whitman, Audre Lorde and Prageeta Sharma are referenced. She also used references 10 books including “Lincoln in the Bardo” and “grief/&loss/&love & sex.” Much Ado About Nothingand Richard II are referenced. Such a lot of effort, not to do Shakespeare’s play.
Many of Hamlet’s soliloquys were chopped up and spoken by other characters such as Ophelia and Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern, to Hamlet. Why? It’s not a conversation. It’s a soliloquy for a reason. The result is a conceptual mess.
This has nothing to do with being a purist about Shakespeare. It has everything to do with a concept that is not supported by the play as written. If Carmichael wanted to do a play about grief, there are plenty of them out there, without butchering this one to serve a misguided purpose.
In Shakespeare’s play, the idea of terror is established immediately by the characters on the watch—anticipating the arrival of the ghost. They are terrified.
But in Jessica Carmichael’s production Ophelia (Beck Lloyd) begins the play. She has been wandering around the space and sits at the lip of the stage and talks about how love is important, and loving one’s body and cats. Cats? I think I covered my eyes here.
In the meantime, up stage is Bernardo (Prince Amponsah) on the watch looking rather relaxed (which seemed odd for a terrified character), until Ophelia leaves and those on watch then continue to be terrified. (sigh). The whole idea of terror is compromised by this ridiculous beginning.
The acting is well intentioned. Qasim Khan is fraught and emotional as Hamlet, flitting from one tense scene to another, but little of this makes sense. So while Qasim Khan as Hamlet is noble; Raquel Duffy as Gertrude is regal; Diego Matamoros as Claudius is devious and Beck Lloyd confident but unsettled, the play suffers because the production makes no sense. Beyond frustrating.
Some warnings that should appear on the Canadian Stage Website:
While High Park is closed to cars on the weekend, that restriction seemed to apply to Thursday July 25 when the production opened. Does City Hall think the weekend starts on Thursday? You could not drive into the park by car from Bloor St. You could enter the park from Parkside Drive. But once there, there was no place to park.
In its infinite wisdom City Hall removed 250 parking spaces and replaced them with bike lanes.
Nuts.
If you park illegally as many of us did in the unused prohibited parking spaces you will be fined $100.
For 41 summers Canadian Stage has been producing theatre in High Park, catering to audiences of upwards of 1500 per night. The decision to remove 250 parking spaces diminishes access to the park and the production by those who do not want to bike to the site or walk the one kilometer to and from the subway.
Perhaps the Canadian Stage Board can lobby the city to make an adjustment for the summer when the “Dream in High Park” is playing.
Once in the park: Sit on the hill or just at the top in a reserved chair to see the whole production.
If you sit further back on the top of the hill, as I was placed, you won’t see any scene staged at the lip of the stage. And there are lots of scenes there.
Canadian Stage presents:
Plays until September 1, 2024.
Running time: 115 minutes (no intermission)