Hamlet – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Scene Painting a History of Hamlets at The National Theatre

Hamlets watching Hamlet

I’ve done some scene painting in my day, but nothing like this. Actually nothing even approaching anything like this.

In Robert Hatcher’s production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at Britain’s National Theatre Ben Stones’ scenery features a gigantic mural that surrounds the set that includes the faces of actors who have played Hamlet through the ages. The picture above doesn’t do that description or the concept justice.

The faces woven into the Danish artwork are the ultimate theatrical Easter egg. While Stones keeps the full cast list close to his chest, he confirms that they are all there – a complete history of the role.

“They’re all hidden in there. Everybody who’s been in it… even Tinuke Craig’s schools Hamlets, the three boys who played on that tour. We were very clear that if we include, we are including everyone who’s ever spoken those words in any version of this kind of play.”

As a statement on the play and its theatricality that’s cool in and of itself. The ghost visages of previous Hamlets watching what can be described as a ghost story has a meta appeal.

What also attracted my attention to this article — and why I’m sharing it — is that it puts the spotlight on scenic painting, somewhat of a lost art in this day of projected backgrounds and digital printing. This theatrical work of art required 920 hours to complete.

There’s a terrific little video that gives you an idea of the scale and scope of the painting requirement. Unfortunately it’s filmed in vertical mode so you don’t get the grand finale the same way on a computer webpage that you might on a smartphone. Even on smaller screens it has an impact.

It made me recall my days directing theatre in Omsk, Russia when the scene painting loft was at the top of the building. There, drops would be stretched on a frame that would rise and descend through an opening in the floor allowing the scenic artists to stand on the floor as they painted. There were some amazing scenic painters in that loft.

The article also gives credit to the scenic artists who did the work for Hamlet at the National. Well deserved.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Brothers On Stage

Challenges met. Memories to cherish.

When our team assembled for The Lehman Trilogy some time ago, the three actors, John Maness, Michael Gravois, and Kevar Maffitt and I never knew that expereince would help us build such a strong, ongoing bond. Well it did.

Last night I had the great pleasure to watch two of the brothers in the Theatre Memphis production of Hamlet, featuring Kevar Maffitt as the Dane, and John Maness as Claudius. I did so sitting along side the third brother Michael Gravois.

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Let’s just say this. Kevar climbed the mountain that is portraying Hamlet brilliantly, captured the play and the audience and took us for quite a ride. Kudos to Kevar and to John, who was also excellent as Claudius, for their excellent work in this oh, so difficult play and oh, so difficult challenge for actors.

We sat towards the back of the house so tha we would not become distrations during the many direct address monologues in the show. That said, the director gave Kevar the freedom to move about the house in those soliloquies and he chose to come up the stadium seating aisle and deliver the end of the famous “to be or not to be” monologue directly to Michael and I.

It was quite a moment among brothers. The bond continues.

We Have To Do Better. At What Exactly?

The time is out of joint

We’re burning up the words and phrases we use for comfort faster than out-of-control wildfires. We’re drowning meaning under flash floods of ravaging frequency. We’re dancing around sensitivities like so many angels on the head of a pin, ignoring that the pin has been smashed into smithereens by a sledge hammer. We keep looking for better angels of our nature to appear but they seem to have given up the ghost trying to reign things in. The time is out of joint.

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The meaningless phrase of the moment this morning that has gotten my goat is “we have to do better.”

What the hell does that even mean?

We pretend that everyone cares about the outrage of political violence. Not everyone does. There are those that care only enough to use it to their own advantage and want to see more of it. Yes, it’s about power. But it’s increasingly become about the money, because you can make boatloads of it preaching hate and division. You know, free speech and all of that.

We have to do better.

There’s no “better” to do when it comes to language, because language only expresses what is felt inside. About self. About others. About domination. About fear. And when the “better” is about better profits… well, that’s the world we live in and at the moment it’s what’s making the world spin faster.

Step away from politics for a second.

When a sports team loses and coaches and players say “we have to do better” or “we have to play better” it means nothing. Of course they do. They lost.

When a business doesn’t meet its sales targets, they always say “we have to do better.” Unless of course they’re spinning losses into wins hoping no one pays attention.

Shift back to political world.

The spinning happens there as well, with a speed that can burn through the surface it’s spinning on. Yet, it’s a bit late to want to do better after the bullet has struck a target so broadly painted.

We can no longer expect appeals to better angels or doing better to work. It’s a naive call to a different past that in many respects never existed, even though on the surface it seemed to. We should no longer be afraid of phrases like civil war, because in case you haven’t noticed, we’re in one. People are being killed in their homes, at rallies, in schools, just about in any place. Sad fact of history, what we want to believe is random violence by extremists always happens before someone declares that a war is on. But hey, we’ve got a deranged lunatic of a leader who wants to meme one into being, while we spend so much time trying to figure out what we know is the why of it.

You can argue that the extremists aren’t the ones with the guns, but the ones with the big mouths and the AI bots at their command. No one is going to clamp down on the rhetoric any more than they are going to clamp down on guns, and it has already bubbled over into a toxic stew. How are you going to “do better” when all sides claim their way is the better way? I don’t have an answer for that question, because I’m afraid I actually know the answer and there’s nothing “better” about it.

The only thing we have to “do better” at is recognizing the horrors of the moment we’re in and facing it for the reality that it is. You and I certainly don’t want to see and hear what we’re seeing and hearing. But we’re too far down that road to not acknowledge we’ve arrived at a terrible place.

Hamlet says:

‘The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!’

I feel like we’re all caught in Hamlet’s dilemma. Wanting to fix it, but afraid to the point of cursing what will eventually need to be done.

Robert LePage’s Hamlet without Words, Words, Words

Told through dance, LePage’s Hamlet is a thrill.

What a treat. Last night a group of us celebrated a friend’s birthday by attending the Robert LePage production of Hamlet. Billed as a Hamlet without words Le LePage collaborated with choreographer Guillaume Côté, who also danced the title role, to deliver a piece almost entirely as a ballet performed by a company of nine. It was an exquisite theatrical adventure.

With the exception of a few supertitles announcing character entrances for identification, the story unfolds and unfurls through dance, and Côté’s choreography was excellent throughout. Although, I felt the vocabulary he established for himself in the title role was not as strong or consistently surprising as it was for the rest of the ensemble. In and of itself surprising, because the entire story revolves around Hamlet’s surprising reactions to the events enfolding him.

The true standout in the company was Carleen Zouboules as Ophelia. Her descent into madness, her drowning, and the graveyard scene were the highlights among many in the production. The entire ensemble were excellent and each had standout moments of their own.

LePage always surprises and Chicago audience were lucky to have this US premiere here. Thrilled I got to see it. There’s a trailer linked below, although it seems to have a larger ensemble than the nine person version we saw last night.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.