“You get a medal for bravery,” the usher said to me as I separated my two pair of tickets to a double header of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet on the same day with George Bernard Shaw’s St. Joan. Admittedly, it was as daunting an immersion into heavy-duty theater as I would ever normally undertake. But I did it and I’m glad. I am also going to presume that it is as formidable and fun for the cast of four that played all the characters in both plays in the course of one day. Most days, it’s one or the other (check schedule.) That’s right only four actors are performing (I almost want to call them performance artists) these two iconic dramas. It is a rematch of an acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement in 2013. Bedlam is the name of the company responsible for these adventurous productions, and they command our respect and admiration for the laudably un-heavy-handed and generally respectful way each play is being done here in rotating repertory at the McCarter Theater Center. Last Saturday for me began at 3pm with Hamlet that lasted exactly three hours. It featured Edmund Lewis, Andrus Nichols, Tom O’Keefe and company director Eric Tucker undertaking the various roles with, as expected, varying degrees of esprit de corps. The Bedlam approach to Hamlet may not be a purist’s delight, but considering the familiarity many of us have with the basic story, their vision of the play and their interpretations of the prominent characters are at the very least refreshing without running the risk of parody. Except for some unsteadying moments when Tucker’s Hamlet appears to swing involuntarily from insanity to inanity (bi-polar?), the complicated and bearded Dane in casual contemporary attire (when not in T-shirt and barefooted) deports himself nobly and rendered his famous soliloquies with exceptional clarity and carefully invested nonconformity. Ms. Nichols handles the switcheroo from the duplicitous Queen Gertrude into the unwittingly duped Ophelia by freeing up her pony tail but more importantly making us believe in the transformation. There’s a decided chill in the air as O’Keefe’s unremorsefully wicked King Claudius stalks tenuously around his newly acquired domain after his heinous murder of Hamlet’s father. He also makes a fairly good case for a bespectacled Polonius, who is even more profoundly foolish than we are use to, but also surprisingly doesn’t play upon the humor inherent in his advice to Laertes. Best moments include Polonius’s tendency to go blank mid speech and also O’Keefe and Lewis as the chatty grave-diggers who mimic the speech of Brooklyn cabbies of yore. This may also be the only time you will get to see a Hamlet do the Charleston...don’t ask. The playing area is rearranged for each act with floor seating and the bleacher seating shifted to accommodate the action. Those members of the audience not seated in the auditorium are asked to go into the lobby for this activity. Upon returning, some are assigned not only lines but small duties. I accepted the invitation and took a seat on the stage for the final act. A gentleman directly in front of me was given the goblet laced with the poison to hold...and performed his task commendably. The asides in Hamlet are given additional heft as the actors intentionally interact with the audience. It’s great fun to participate, and it doesn’t detract from the intensity of the drama being performed. The actors also use the steep aisles of the Berlind effectively throughout the play. The modernist affectations, including the use of flash-lights on the battlement and the ghostly projections are part of a splendidly unpretentious artistic design that include John McDermott’s settings enhanced by Les Dickert’s eerie lighting.
