Young actor reveals 'Hamlet's' childish side
Saint Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota)
March 12, 2006 Sunday
BYLINE: DOMINIC P. PAPATOLA, Theater Critic
Expectations abound in the Guthrie Theatre's production of "Hamlet." It's a staging of the greatest play in the English-speaking world. It's the last production at the hallowed old Vineland Place stage. And the actor in the title role is a young U of M grad, playing the role of a lifetime at age 23.
Put all the hype aside, though, and all that remains is a play to be performed. In some ways, the major triumph in the Guthrie's "Hamlet" is that artistic director Joe Dowling and his company have managed to put the pressures of history and tradition out of their collective minds to produce a solid and intriguing — if not revelatory — staging.
Dowling has set the play in the 1940s, a time of war and uncertainty. The uniformed guards on the watch are non-coms wearing trench coats and World War II helmets. Castle Ellsinore itself bears the scars of siege — sandbagged bunkers and the ruined splinters of buildings are never far from sight. King Claudius and Queen Gertrude have a Peronist air about them, and conquering Fortinbras swaggers in at the end with a little mustache and a stiff-armed salute.
Since it sidesteps the high-blown expectation of a less contemporary, more formal setting, this placement plays well into the hands of Santino Fontana, the young man cast to portray Hamlet.
His tragic prince is a petulant, spoiled-yet-good-hearted son. Possessed of a volatile temper and a penchant for theatrics, this Hamlet is intelligent and observant but unacquainted with tragedy, still trying on the trappings of adulthood more than wearing them comfortably: When college pals Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come for a visit, they arrive with a gratefully accepted six-pack.
Fontana's reading of the "too, too solid flesh" soliloquy comes out almost as a tantrum. Later, when Hamlet marvels at "what a piece of work is a man," the speech flows, not with the wonder of rumination, but with the fresh discovery of fact. He's less successful connecting the thematic dots in the "to be or not to be" speech, but then, again, he's not helped by having to deliver the play's most famous soliloquy dead center stage, announced by a dramatic lighting change to signify The Big Moment.
But in the spans between all those great speeches, Fontana offers the kind of performance that only a very young man could deliver. Rather than making an ill-advised reach for epic, he makes Hamlet an impetuous, sometimes mocking, occasionally effeminate kid; bright but not particularly wise, capable of living only in the moment.
Fontana gets rock-solid support from his castmates. The sheen-coated Matthew Greer and the maternal-but-indulgent Christina Rouner hint that hormones as well as politics motivate the sudden marriage of the opportunistic Claudius and the widowed Gertrude. Kevin O'Donnell is a warm, wise, true-blue Horatio; a best friend determined to stick with Hamlet, even if he can't quite keep up with his mercurial nature.
Leah Curney infuses Ophelia with enough joy and heartbreak to make her abortive relationship with Hamlet feel a little bit like "Romeo and Juliet." As her father, Polonius, Peter Michael Goetz takes the character-actor approach, snapping and clapping through a broad but fresh reading of the role.
Does this "Hamlet" serve as a capstone for the Guthrie's 43 years at Vineland Place? No, but nor does it try to. Instead of reaching beyond the play for a momentous statement, the Guthrie ends its days at its old home with craft and skill, trusting history to take care of itself.
Theater critic Dominic P. Papatola can be reached at
dpapatola@pioneerpress.com or at 651-228-2165.
His voice is awesome powerful. He's not hugely well know, but I think he's going to be a star.
