You
see, on far too many occasions I've seen Shakespeare "adaptations" that
only require the creative efforts of the production’s aesthetic
designers. Pick a decade, find the right garb, Google pics of the right
haircuts, scrounge around for a few props and you're set. That's an
adaptation, right? Uh, not quite.
Check this, courtesy of Dictionary.com:
"Adaptation [ad-uhp-tey-shuhn] –– noun
— 4a. Any alteration in the structure or function of an organism or any
of its parts that results from natural selection and by which the
organism becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in its
environment."
Besides
providing Western culture with some of its most celebrated and enduring
literary works, the Bard's tome gives the modern troupe something few
scripts can: pliability. Sure, just about any ancient text can be
changed (no licensing fees, copyright liabilities, etc.), but
Shakespeare is different. Big Willy's plays, with their timeless
psychological complexity, built-in fanbase and familiar narratives —
especially "Hamlet," the best of his best — provide innumerable
possibilities to be daring, innovative; to wow your audience by
transforming 400 year old scripts into relevant, cutting-edge
entertainment. The trick is to go deeper than the skin.
Cue
Inland Stage Company's "The Suffragette Hamlet," a true, high-caliber
adaptation. Set in the 1910's during the height of America's women's
rights movement, adroit adapter/director Darcie Flansburg goes beyond
the trivial to give us a whole new reimagining. She reverses the
genders. No, it's not one of those dilettante epicene-ist efforts where
women are merely dressed in pants and play the male roles. No, Flansburg
completely flips the script: Hamlet is a young woman, whose mother is
murdered by her aunt, Claudia; whose boyfriend, Ophelio, loses it and
drowns himself after Hamlet murders his mother, Polly; whose fateful
duel with Ophelio's bloodlustful sister, Lydia, results in Hamlet's —
and just about everyone else's — brutal, untimely end.
In
their flipping, Flansburg and her strong cast — doing their best work —
manage to breathe new, modern life into the Bard's perennial drama.
Yvonne
Flack delivers as Hamlet. A Ph.D candidate in literature and film,
currently working on a dissertation about “Hamlet,” Flack has an
extraordinary understanding of the play and titular character, which
lent well to her interpretation and performance.
Emphasizing
the (often hilarious) intrigue between Hamlet and her childhood
friends, Rosie Crantz and Guilda Stern, is a wonderful touch, readily
showing off Flansburg’s comedic prowess through the sparkling chemistry
of Kaylee Tardy and Erin Christine Feaster (Rosie and Guilda,
respectively).
The
idea of twin sisters made the grisly familial intrigue even more lurid.
Utilizing the same actress (Monica Reichl) for the roles of the Claudia
and Hamlet’s mother’s ghost was another great choice. As was John
Wesley Leon’s (Gerald) in playing out the drama as unaware of his
sister-in-law’s, er, second wife’s murderous streak until the closing
genocide. As was having Ophelio (Dane Johnston) drunk and bottle-nursing
during his pre-suicide ramblings.
And
the clincher... the element that puts this production among the best
Shakespeare you’ll see in the I.E., is the live music: part creepy
Baroque, part dark Victorian jazz, part experimental Spanish guitar, and
all Sean Longstreet —
the überskilled one-man band that riffs and jams under and around the
actors’ spoken poetry, creating a haunting, even cinematic effect —
especially during Hamlet’s monologues — that’d be a crime to miss.
LA theater reviews by LA Theater Critic.
