The Tragedy of Hamlet (review)

The Tragedy of Hamlet. By William Shakespeare. Adapted and directed by Peter Brook. Mercer Arena, Seattle. 10 April 2001.

The city of Seattle launched the world tour of Peter Brook's The Tragedy of Hamlet, a production that has since played in Brooklyn, Chicago, Vienna, Kyoto, Tokyo and London. Four local theatre companies collectively raised the necessary $900,000, and in order to accommodate 800 patrons and an intimate stage, the company constructed a temporary thrust theatre inside of a multi-purpose arena.

The Tragedy of Hamlet was publicized as a once-in-a-lifetime event, and anticipation for it was unprecedented. Crossing the threshold that most often welcomes fans to sporting events and rock concerts, spectators ventured across the now unfamiliar arena floor and up a steep temporary staircase to discover what had been carved out of "empty space." Steeply raked seats on three sides framed the signature reddish-orange carpet covering the small stage. Furnishings were sparse: an ottoman, colored pillows, small rugs, and a station of musical instruments manned by Toshi Tsuchitori, who would provide kabuki-esque accompaniment during the performance.

The production had been rehearsed for three months and shown to its first audiences in late 2000 at Paris's Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, home base of Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research. The adaptation, the director's first attempt at Shakespeare in English since 1978, stemmed from an exploration of Hamlet's first scene, which had been produced a few years before as the fifty-minute Qui est là? The new version, fuller but still minus one third of the text, began with Horatio uttering the first line, "Who's there?" Hamlet's introspective tale unfolded rapidly, reaching its tragic end in 150 minutes without intermission.

Part of this production's efficiency came from reducing the cast to eight. Four actors doubled or tripled roles as Ghost/Claudius, Rosencrantz/First Player, Guildenstern/Second Player/Laertes, and Polonius/Gravedigger/Osric. Although Brook's stated intent was to make us "listen to Hamlet, as if for the first time," his unique adaptation left some struggling to understand the events unfolding before them. Fortinbras, several minor characters, and the political passages were eliminated, as were Laertes's departure for France and Polonius's commissioning of Reynaldo, choices that extracted Elsinore from its particular geography. Hamlet's "too too solid flesh" soliloquy replaced the public wedding banquet as our introduction to the state of the now placeless Denmark. The First Player's recital of the Pyrrhus speech in Orghast and its inserted reprisal in the "play's the thing" speech was an allusion that ultimately obscured Hamlet's intention to create a trap for Claudius.

"To be, or not to be . . ." was postponed to serve as a meditation during Hamlet's disposal of Polonius's body. Ophelia descended into madness in a frenzied dance, alone rather than in public [Begin Page 158] view, as an unseen Tsuchitori surrounded her with music. Since Laertes's late introduction allowed him only a glimpse of his suffering sister, the audience was expected to infer their familial bonds. Laertes's plotting with Claudius to kill Hamlet was reduced to bare essentials and followed Ophelia's burial. This choice shifted Laertes's motivation from avenging his father's death to the immediate but more trivial fuel of a lost wrestling match. Sticks serving as swords stylized and speeded up the final duel, and after life ebbed from Hamlet, the dead Polonius and Ophelia entered and collapsed to the floor. In the final tableau, all rose while Horatio peered into a bright light and repeated the play's opening question, "Who's there?" While streamlining the action, Brook's cuts and rearrangements sometimes obscured events and their motivations.

Hamlet was played by Adrian Lester, a Briton of Caribbean descent. The dreadlocked Lester demonstrated acrobatic agility and offered contemporary, young, and often humorous gestures to illuminate his 400-year-old words. Hamlet's intimacy was with the audience, as Lester...