In a word: riveting. The Santa Cruz Shakespeare production of Hamlet is everything one could hope it would be. Director Susan Dalian has updated the setting of this 425-year-old masterwork to the late 1960s, piping in vintage rock ’n’ roll plus radio broadcasts about the Vietnam War and various presidential assassinations during scene changes.
Dalian has also done something smart and rare. In switching up a few key roles—Horatio (Charlotte Munson) becomes a female comrade of Hamlet, and Polonius (Paige Lindsey White) is now a meddling matriarch and court counselor—she’s put fresh spin on the text. And in the process refreshed the balance of politics and poetry. Not too much, but oh so deliciously.
There’s a reason we keep coming back to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, again and again. With each telling this masterpiece bears new gifts. If we’re lucky, a player fits himself within a role so seamlessly that all we can do is surrender. And feast. In the title role, SCS Artistic Director Charles Pasternak wears his Hamlet as easily as a pair of silk pajamas.
Finessing some of the best-known lines in the English language, Pasternak is passionate and nimble. He convinces us immediately that he knows what he’s saying, because as the drama of political struggle, existential doubt and bitter revenge unfolds, we plunge deeper.
We understand exactly what Shakespeare was exploring, all the while seducing us with puzzles, puns and parodies that still play as well as they must have over four centuries ago.
Still mourning his late father, Hamlet hears the Ghost’s command to avenge his most foul and unnatural death, and relishes the challenge. Confiding to his visiting schoolmates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he will “put on an antic disposition”—i.e., feign madness—he begins his quest to ensnare the villain who has killed his father and married his mother.
Pasternak’s nuanced vocal work is irresistible, full of resounding oratory to introspective musing. And his astonishing physical grace and energy never let up, as he invited the audience’s attention to the dilemmas of reason over madness, as he considers death, the unknown country.
Kudos to Pasternak, whose “to be or not to be” soliloquy was vividly felt and elegantly delivered. Even though we know it’s coming, this actor’s delivery rekindles the thrill of these words.
There’s much to enjoy in this swift telling of Shakespeare’s best-known work. Grayson DeJesus plays Laertes with intelligence and ease. Marion Adler, stunningly clothed, placed Gertrude exactly where she needed to be emotionally and physically in her key scenes as the ultimately shamed queen.
As the murderous king, Mike Ryan told his side of the story crisply, while giving Pasternak all the room he needed to essentially own the stage.
Munson’s Horatio made a valiant confidant for the troubled prince. Led by Patty Gallagher, the ensemble re-creating of the murder of Hamlet’s father are costumed as a traveling band of hippie actors.
Thanks to the shamanic imagination of costume designer Austin Blake Conlee, the stage was punctuated with high-key colors, from the jewel-toned suits and gowns of the court’s royal women to the inspired collection of platform boots, Jim Morrison scarves and neon-hued “rags and patches” on the players.
A shout-out to the red hot Brianna Miller as the player Queen (currently also playing Gwendolen in Earnest). May she be a permanent star in SCS repertory firmament. Among the vivacious costumings only Allie Pratt’s Ophelia lost out, forced to go mad in unflattering negligée and boots.
In his dual role as the ghost of Hamlet’s father and the Gravedigger, Raphael Nash Thompson gave potent inflection to everything he did, most unexpectedly in his priceless call-and-response graveyard banter with a homespun companion played by the endlessly resourceful Saundra McClain, who it turns out can do just about anything (see her Lady Bracknell in Earnest).
And it was another genius turn from Paige Lindsey White, as gossipy court counselor. Her Polonius is the prattling social climber, paralleling Claudius as the murdering usurper of the royal household.
The director’s provocative re-gendering lets White loose to strut and blather, savor her own silliness and basically devour the scenery with her lightning-quick misappraisals of court intrigue. A retro vision in bouffant hair and Lady Bird Johnson couture, White’s Polonius is a mesmerizing fool right up to an abrupt end.
This Hamlet is gorgeous to the eyes and ears, and brisk entertainment from its ingenious opening to its bloody end. Congratulations to the company, smartly led by Pasternak’s knockout performance.
Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s production of Hamlet, directed by Susan Dalian, runs through Aug. 31 at the Audrey Stanley Grove, 501 Upper Park Road, Santa Cruz. santacruzshakespeare.org.
