What We Hear; What we see: Theatre for a New Audience's 2009 Hamlet

Summary

In any production of a Shakespeare play what we hear and see is largely determined by the text, but individual productions can and do make surprising and sometimes enlightening choices that bring the text to life in unexpected ways. Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) added visual images (through video and staging techniques) and sound effects to a text that, with almost all the unfamiliar words and images cut, rarely could trouble even a novice audience. By cutting the text in decisive ways, director David Esbjornson shaped a clear interpretation of a play that has seemed to contain too many possible interpretations. Esbjornson's was not, however, a heavy-handed imposition of a director's perspective on the play but a subtle enactment of the play's potential within a modern context. The production avoided the problematic Hamlet proposed by much critical literature from the eighteenth century through to the present and the potentially less than admirable Hamlet exposed in passages that undercut the character's nobility. It was a production that could please those who praise Hamlet as one of the most admirable characters in literature; it required no excuses for his inaction. Nevertheless, this Hamlet was as complex and deeply layered as the actor Christian Camargo could make him. Greeted by most reviewers as one of the best Hamlets seen in many years, the production had at its heart superb acting and an innovative group of designers.

Entering the theatre, the Duke on 42nd Street, in New York City, audiences were immediately struck by the intimacy of the venue (180 seats for Hamlet). Arranged on three sides of a black, tiled platform stage, the audience was close to the action but shielded from each other most of the time by extreme darkness. The choice of a mixture of modern-dress costumes fitted the neutral setting. Penetrated by spotlights, the darkness focused attention where it was needed. The script eliminated lines that invite actors to speak directly to the audience, keeping Elsinore hermetically sealed within that black space. For example, Polonius does not urge the audience to share his perception of Hamlet's madness with lines often interpreted as asides, such as ‘How say you by that’ (2.2.189) and ‘I’ll speak to him again’ (2.2.193). The darkness of the production precluded any such intimacy between the actors and the audience and made the production insular and pressurized.