“Hamlet,” one of the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature and every actor’s Everest, has been selected as Shakespeare on the Sound’s 21st annual production, featuring a 1950s setting and an age-appropriate cast.
Claire Kelly’s adaption of Shakespeare’s masterpiece unfolds for 16 performances June 16--July 3 in the natural amphitheater of Pinkney Park in Rowayton with 21-year-old Joey Santia in the title role--at the age, and more or less the stage of life, that Shakespeare envisioned for the character of Hamlet.
Casting somebody of Santia’s age as the principal figure in “Hamlet”runs contrary to the conventions of professional theater.
Alec Guinness, John Gielgud, Orson Welles and Richard Burton have played the part professionally. So have Weston resident Christopher Plummer, Mel Gibson, Christopher Walken and other gifted titans of the stage and screen, even Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) and Weston’s grand old dame of the theater, Eva Le Gallienne (1899-1991).
All of them were mature and accomplished personalities, long immersed in theater, when they assumed the iconic character of the Prince of Denmark who avenges the murder of his father, delivering perhaps the most well-known of all theatrical utterances: “To be or not to be; that is the question.”
Olivier typically was 41 when he won the Oscar for “Hamlet. Wilton’s Walken was nearly 40 when he appeared in a 1982 production—also featuring Anne Baxter--that turned out to be the final full season of the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, CT, dark to this day. And Paul Giamatti was 45 in the Yale Repertory Theater production in 2013.
With costs rising inevitably, the guidelines for admission has been modified from years past. There is still no charge to get into the park Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. On those nights donations remain encouraged--$20 for adults, $10 for students and seniors—as they have been. But this season introduces an admission charge of $20 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, children 12 and under get access free. Reserved seating is still available for $50 and Monday nights are dark. Tickets can be purchased in the park or online at www.shakespeareonthesound.org.
Where classic interpretations of Hamlet run more than four hours or even five hours, the play is rarely acted in uncut form and Kelly has trimmed the Pinkney Park script to 2 ½ hours wrapped around a 15-minute intermission, preserving the lyrical force of Shakespeare’s masterpiece and at the same time getting to the point of the scenes with less embroidery.
Still to be cast are Hamlet’s romantic interest Ophelia and the obliquely-comic role of Hamlet’s close advisor, Polonious, portrayed by Bill Murray in a 2000 film set in New York with Ethan Hawke in the title role.
Polonius’ are the timeless lines:
“To thine own self be true.”
“Neither a borrower or a lender be.”
The play courses with other universal truths that permeate our language. To list a few:
“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
“(Every) dog will have its day.”
“Flaming youth.”
“In my heart of hearts.”
“In my mind’s eye.”
“It smells to heaven.”
“Not a mouse stirring.”
“Primrose path.”
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
“Sweets to the sweet.”
Two decades of delivering The Bard’s lavish prose illuminating the workings of the human soul have given Shakespeare on the Sound a remarkably dedicated following and driven roots into the community.
Says Cherie Burton of Rowayton, the president of the board of directors:
“The richness of such a fine cultural resource with its sustainable opportunities for education and sheer family fun is woven into the fabric of the community through our activities and our production. Those who camped at the lip of the stage as youngsters and grew up with the artistic sensibilities of SOS are adults themselves now. They talk about how our presentations helped them in high school, in college and in their social lives. It makes a community multi-dimensional in a great way.”
Of the theater’s need to evolve, she says: “As a community the demographic changes have been multiple. So we have to re-introduce ourselves on a regular basis, assuring those familiar with SOS that we are making progress and that what they have loved over the years is still in place. At the same time we need to reach out to newcomers with what we have to offer and how it benefits them and their families.”
To enrich the relationship with the playgoers in the community, Shakespeare on the Sound is introducing “Hints on Hamlet,” a free wine-and-cheese in the Moose Room of the Rowayton Community Center (on Highland Avenue) on the second Monday of every month (starting Feb. 10) until the end of the play, offering insights on how the pieces of the production are assembled, “the inside scoop” as Kelly describes it. Registration is suggested (call 203.229.1300 or contactus@shakespeareonthesound.org) but not required.
New Canaan’s Kelly, two shows in the park behind her as a director, emerges as the artistic director in 2016 with the added assignment as director of “Hamlet,” Shakespeare’s classic ghost story, so intensely revealing a tale of treachery and revenge that the plot twists and characters were transformed into a computer game in 2010.
Charlton Heston was once quoted as saying Hamlet could be played in 10 different ways—from brave to psychotic. Kelly’s version explores the characters “through the complex emotion of fear, one of the deepest emotions we as humans feel and have become experts at masking. We examine how deeply-rooted fears drive each character to make the choices they make throughout the play.”
Setting the production in the early 1950s, the period after World War II, reflects, in her words, “on a macro level the fragile and dangerous world in which Hamlet lives.”
“It was a time of rebuilding of families and countries. People were still dealing with great loss while trying to move on and find hope. On the surface life seemed to be moving forward but there was an undercurrent of uncertainty and fear that the new beginnings could be torn away.”
Santia is a sophomore at Columbia University who played Hamlet last summer in student theater--a Rubicon Theatre Company production in his hometown of Ventura, CA. He was also a member of the Apprentice Company of Shakespeare on the Sound and appeared in the ensemble of the 2015 Pinkney Park production of “All’s Well that Ends Well."
Kelly describes Santia as “a versatile, imaginative, thoughtful, talented and emotionally connected actor. It was extremely propitious to find an actor his age to take on a role of the magnitude of Hamlet. The audition was tough,” Kelly said. “I really challenged him and he worked hard to earn the part.”
The set designer, Brian Prather, is back for his fourth season in Rowayton and the costume designer, Grier Coleman, who started by creating outfits for ice-skaters, is returning for her third turn. “It doesn’t matter that the audience doesn’t know me because I designed the set,” says Prather. “Hearing their gasps and seeing their reactions—it’s just fantastic.”
Prather’s design is to be transformed into the stage in the park by Maia Robbins-Zust, the technical director of the theatre department at Williams College in Williamstown, MA who has erected the sets for Shakespeare on the Sound since 2011.
Meanwhile the New York Yacht Club’s historic beaux arts landmark (at 37 West 44th St.) in midtown Manhattan has been obtained as the venue for a fund-raising gala evening Feb. 29 (Monday) showcasing the talent of a number of Tony Award winners and nominees and other Broadway performers. Tickets are $300 and $500. Tickets are available by calling Shakespeare on the Sound at 203.229.1300 or online at www.shakespeareonthesound.org.
The theater’s Apprentice Company and outreach called “Budding Bards” is to be augmented with two play readings on the main stage in Pinkney Park at 5 p.m. before the nightly 7:30.m. curtain and a third showing for family and friends at another location outside the park.
For young people with theatrical aspirations, the platform offers professional tutoring and hands-on opportunities for sharpening skills in writing, performing and directing. The theater is looking for emerging artists 19 to 25. Applications to join the ensemble are being accepted until March 1. Information is available by calling 203.229.1300 or online at www.shakespeareonthesound.org.
After a one-year hiatus, the theater’s summer camps are back in four age brackets: Playing Shakespeare for children age 3 and 4 with parents, Shakespeare’s Sandbox for those 5 and 6, The Globe Players for those 6 to 8 and Hamlet JR, the latter to generate a hour-long modification of “Hamlet” to be performed Family Night June 24 (Friday) with June 26 as a rain date. “
Five new members have been added to the Shakespeare on the Sound board of directors—Pam Murrin and Christine Cunningham of Rowayton, Emily Bryan and Catherine Hoyt Schulz of Darien and Lorah Haskins of New Canaan.
At the same time the theater has moved its administrative base back to the second floor of the Rowayton Library/Community Center on Highland Road after three seasons in a Darien office building.
No one can foresee what kind of season will materialize for Shakespeare on the Sound this year but peering ahead Kelly foresees hopefully adding a second production to the season in the fall or winter, possibly as soon as 2017 or 2018, venturing beyond Shakespeare to stage the work of other classic playwrights.
(Cutline)
Actor Joey Santia and director Claire Kelly talk about how Shakespeare illuminates the workings of the soul and turns life into art in “Hamlet,” to be staged in Rowayton’s Pinkney Park starting June 16. (Photo by Jayson Byrd)
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