HAMLET
The Defiant Theatre’s Hamlet has chutzpah. That’s not all it has, but it has more of that than anything else. It may be short on the slyly comic wordplay, the densely textured philosophical inquiry, and the cathartic tragedy that make the play a masterpiece; but its energy and brash commitment to every moment make it a lively and interesting show.
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An outgrowth of the Electric Shakespeare Company, which was formed downstate three years ago at the University of Illinois, the Defiant ensemble is directed here by Christopher Johnson, who states his intentions in a program note: “A truly bold choice requires that you open yourself up to the possibility of failure, ridicule and humiliation. . . . And besides, Hamlet is a fun play. We just hope we can achieve the heights that Mel Gibson and Zeffirelli were able to (that was sarcasm in case you were wondering).”
The relentless violence doesn’t quite work; if these folks are so quick on the draw, you have to ask yourself, why don’t they just blow each other away in the opening scene instead of three and a half hours later? But it makes for some exciting moments–such as the duel between Hamlet and Laertes (played as a square-jawed preppie by John Neisler), effectively staged by Nick Offerman as a bone-crunching fistfight. Some striking stage pictures (courtesy of set designer Andy Warfel and lighting designer Richard Norwood) and a harshly evocative industrial-crunch sound track by Gregor Mortis are also intriguing.
