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RE:ACTING! GENIUS! - 7:33AM on 9/17/2009
Saw Hamlet Sunday the 13th. Beautifully designed, great costumes, evocative set, appropriately moody lighting; very nice to look at.
However, I dont know why they went with the acting and directing they chose. Jude Law is so over the top, chewing up the scenery, that it becomes distracting. I understand Hamlet can be played many ways depending on the actor, but this was just too angry, and barely introspective. He is also overdirected, theres a gesture or mime for every word and phrase. It reminded me when Family Guy makes fun of William Shatner. And all of the supporting actors just kind of fade, none of them are fully fleshed out. Polonius was all wrong. I saw Alvin Epstein play him in the TFANA production last season and he was such a wonderfully querulous, meddlesome old man that you felt sorry when he was killed; not here! They did treat that scene in Gertrudes chamber in a very cool way, I have never seen it staged like they did it here, but that was the most interesting thing about the production.
The audience ate it up, lots of laughing and reactions, multiple curtain calls, standing ovation, blah, blah, blah. I cant recommend it though; I wont say run the other direction, its not great, but Shakespeare is like pizza, or sex. Even when its not great, its still pretty good. However this is not worth the price. If they discount or you can get someone else to pay for it, go for it.
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