Displaying items by tag: Robert Koon

I think my favorite thing – well, one of my favorite things – about Wyatt Kent’s take on HAMLET is imagining just how much fun everyone must have been having with it! everyone except Hamlet, of course, but the entire play is about Prince Hamlet (Ashley Fox) having a Very. Bad. Day.

HAMLET is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, no argument about that, and certainly the corpses littering the stage in the final act [I don’t have to worry about spoilers here, right?] cannot be anything but tragic. But Director Kent broadened the scope, extended our range of understanding HAMLET, by making us laugh.

Yes, I know Shakespeare injects touches of humor into every play – even Macbeth has a few chuckles – but I’m talking about a far more inclusive and deliberate thing here. Last summer I saw Midsommer Flight’s production of Cymbeline, billed as tragedy but staged as comedy. Director Beth Wolf created a totally brilliant comedy while staying true to the Bard’s script word for word. Kent worked the same magic on HAMLET, a categorically tragic work, with sensational results.

In retrospect I realize there was some humor evident as early as Act 1 Scene 1, where Horatio (Reginald Hemphill) sees the Ghost, but I had arrived at the theatre expecting to see HAMLET, a tragedy, so it took a minute to wrap my mind around what was happening up there. And that’s OK! – it worked really well for me to pick up on it only gradually ….

Act 1, Scene 3: Ophelia (Julia Rowley) was saying farewell to her brother Laertes (Ian Maryfield) and, OK, she did go a tad OTT what with leaping into his arms and knocking him to the floor, but I was still considering the desultory laughter misplaced, not to mention rude. Then Polonius (Zach Bloomfield) begins to deliver his loving, solicitous, concerned, pompous, long-winded, verbose, garrulous, interminable paternal speech to his son and at that point it was a no-brainer – the production was categorically comedic. In any production Polonius will be a garrulous guy, that’s who Polonius is, and Bloomfield skillfully played this bombastic buffoon with maximum drollery, making us chuckle all through ‘neither a borrower nor a lender be.…’ Laertes rolling his eyes at Dad’s balderdash was another unmistakable clue as to where Kent was taking us.

I repeat - not one syllable was altered in the script of HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK; it was the artistry of Kent’s vision and the genius of the actors that transmogrified HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK from dramatic tragedy to black comedy. Brilliant!

More giggles in store in Act 2, when Harrison Lampert (Rosencrantz) bumbled, fumbled, and stumbled his way onstage, befriended and ballyhooed by Mary Townsend Cahoon as Guildenstern. Every scene with these two was L.O.L. funny! And again, it was the actors’ postures, expressions and intonation – in a word, their acting – that morphed Shakespeare’s lines into one-liners.

Polonius again exercises his loquacious and circumlocutory logorrhea to alert King Claudius (Robert Koon) and Queen Gertrude (Kelly Levander) that Prince Hamlet has gone mad. Furthermore, Polonius posits the pathogenesis of Hamlet’s madness is none other than that enigmatic enchantment that oft-times doth drive strong men nuts … love.

Right then, that covers the major players. Others included Josh Razavi (Gravedigger et al), Tatiana Pavela (Player etc.) and Tulsi McDaniels (Osric and others) and all did colossal justice to their multiple roles in many scenes.

I can’t leave the cast without some shout-outs to my favorites – you all know I unapologetically play favorites in my reviews! First is Ashley Fox as Hamlet; he is the sole character who doesn’t participate in the farcical variation, and I imagine it was a challenge for Fox to retain that bleak and gloomy aspect amidst the hilarity of her fellows. She truly did a stellar job! 

I already mentioned Lampert and Cahoon’s (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s) wonderful waggery – by their third or fourth appearance we were laughing in anticipation as soon as they took the stage! Likewise, Zack Bloomfield’s Polonius – even his mustache was weirdly chucklesome.

Alarum: I had a bag of Skittles and (probably channeling Rosencrantz) dropped it! Losing the Skittles was oh-so-what, but they rolled like BB’s into the aisles where actors were dashing about. Just my luck if an actor slipped on my sweets and the evening relapsed back into tragedy! From my seat I couldn’t reach to sweep ‘em away, but Ian Maryfield, lovely Laertes, stepped off the stage [and, more difficult, out of character!], to scrape the treacherous little treats out of harm’s way. Gratitude galore to the gallant Laertes! And, just BTW, his performance was every bit as striking as his chivalry. Ian, if you’re reading this: 

I’ll begin my production plaudits with Casting Director Becca Holloway for assembling this phenomenal team. I’ve seen lots of gender-bending casting, particularly in this PC (post-Covid) era, but it seemed that Holloway was simply gender- as well as color-blind, selecting the actor best suited for each role without regard to anything but their talent. I don’t know if that really was her strategy, but it certainly was the outcome.  

And naturally the finest cast won’t deliver the finest production without the finest Direction, which Wyatt Kent delivered, assisted by Sean William Kelly (Assistant Director) and Technical Director Andy Cahoon – who also collaborated on Props with Mary Townsend Cahoon – who also sparkled as Guildenstern. This production was all about multi-tasking, yeah? For Fight and Intimacy Design, I just last week saw Babes With Blades do The S Paradox, so my bar was set really high, but Jamie MacPherson and Fight Captain Ian Maryfield cleared that bar with room to spare!

Pictured left to right - Kelly Levander as Gertrude, Ian Maryfield as Laertes, Ashley Fox as Hamlet

Dr Lexi Signor’s Music was flawlessly selected, and Text Coach Meredith Ernst conveyed excellent translations of iambic pentameter. Sebby Woldt (Sound), Derryl (Lighting) and Rose Johnson (Scenic Design) generated an impeccable environment to sustain both the indigenous tragedy of HAMLET as well as Kent’s comic interpretation – no mean feat, that! In addition, have I mentioned that HAMLET was performed in the round?!  I felt smug at having got a seat in the perfect spot – until several people seated elsewhere said the same thing. How did dey do dat?

No, I haven’t forgotten Costume Designer Madeline Felauer, I was just saving the best for last. Felauer chose to bedizen the characters with a surrealistic thread. Hamlet wore a shapeless moth-eaten sweater, while Queen Gertrude was in a dress Jackie Kennedy might have worn, a mink stole, and 3” pumps. For Ophelia, picture an exceptionally odd floor-length orange fishnet … um, thing … over a miniskirt. Other characters ran the gamut from ugly plaid business suit to crisp, scarlet-trimmed military-style jacket, and blue jeans abounded. Overall, the effect coordinated perfectly with the mind-f*ck tragedy cum farce aspect of the production.

And of course, nothing gets to the box office without the guidance and oversight of a good Stage Manager. I once asked a friend with lots of theatre experience, “Just what does a Stage Manager do, anyway?” to which they replied, “Everything.” So … Tessa Huber did Everything, with a lil’ help from Assistant Junipero “Juni” Cruz.

I hope you have gleaned from this that I really reeeeeeally liked Red Theater’s HAMLET. This gig as a reviewer has certainly broadened my artistic horizons, particularly of The Bard. Everyone knows Shakespeare was a magnificent playwright, but I suggest that one can’t truly appreciate his works until you’ve seen them produced on Chicago’s iconic storefront stages with cast from Chicago’s wicked assemblage of outstanding actors.

I leave you with two take-home messages: (1) keep your skittles in your pocket; and (2) SEE HAMLET!!!

Playing at The Edge Off Broadway Theater Mondays and Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30, and Sundays at 3

Running through Sunday May 19.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!  

And with more than a dozen performances coming up you have no excuse not to go!