The Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2008 Season
Playbill Soars With Brian Dennehy and Ben Carlson's Masterful Hamlet
Earlier on in the season, 'twas a rocky start with three artistic directors at The Stratford Shakespeare Festvial helm, the sudden departure of artistic directors Marti Maraden, and Don Shipley predictably causing quite a stir.
Now only artistic director Des McAnuff remains but assisted by business manager Antoni Cimolino, and Stratford's steadfast Actor's Company, the Festival has regained solid footing with opening productions and directorial debuts nothing short of spectacular.
Brian Dennehy's melancholic curmudgeon Krapp in Krapp's Last Tape brings playwright Samuel Beckett's radical text to an intoxicatng level and this year's Hamlet is one of finest productions ever produced for the Festival stage.
Hamlet– Directed by Adrian Noble.
Legendary actors have played The Danish Prince from Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, to Ian McKellan, Albert Finney, Ben Kingsley, Kenneth Branagh even Frances de La Tour.
For those who remember, Canada’s Brent Carver, Colm Feore or Paul Gross as Young Dane all three interpretations had shining moments, yet in his Festival debut directed by England’s Adrian Noble, seeing Ben Carlson’s multi-dimensional portrayal of Hamlet is like seeing the play for the first time. Carlson is truly a Hamlet for the ages…
Known to Shaw Festival audiences, Ben Carlson is magnificent in his Stratford debut, giving Shakespeare’s ageless soliloquies new life and meaning. He draws from a rich palette of emotional colours, shades and tints, be he savvy scholar, The Players mischievous guest Artistic Director re enacting his Ghost Father’s Murder Most Foul, or the morally wounded son, seething in a fetal coil centre spot, bemoaning his mother’s incestuous actions.
Adrian Noble, long time Artistic Director for England’s Royal Shakespeare Company, who directed Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet for RSC in 1992, has skilfully solidified his 2008 Canadian production of Hamlet with a winning supporting cast.
Geraint Wyn Davies almost steals the show taking usually doddering buffoon like Polonius, fashioning more of a witty, nosy but caring father to Ophelia and Laertes and making a glorious juxtaposition to text-adept Scott Wentworth's cold, eventually conflicted Claudius.
Adrienne Gould’s Ophelia triumphs, as audiences witness her crazy beautiful descent into madness. From Festival regular James Blendick as The Ghost to newbies Victor Ertmanis and Randy Hughson as The Gravediggers, all of Hamlet’s cast make This Play the Thing.
Tony winner Santo Loquasto’s flaxen plank floor design is a master stroke – a chamber ensemble, and piano for Ophelia and Polonius serving as a divine device for set changes. The billiard table scenario is inspired for the short and sweet snooker game between Claudius and Laertes as they conspire to murder Hamlet.
The Edwardian / Nordic look of the production melded with Michael Walton’s lighting design from stark flashlight, vintage sepia silhouettes of The Players or the fog shrouded shadow of The Ghost flowing through the door serve as another character – a striking element accentuating Adrian Noble’s superb direction.
This three-hour play traffic literally flies by with impeccable pace contrasted with Hamlet’s timeless soliloquies, made so naturally understood by Ben Carlson.
At play’s end, Bard fans old and new were on their feet, bravos ringing out for what remains William Shakespeare’s most intriguing work of all time – this Hamlet a sure sign that The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is now destined to find its global audience.
Actor Ben Carlson
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