Your turn to play critic! Briefly, what did you think of the performance of Hamlet at St. Joseph's College? If possible, try to limit your comment(s) in scope to a single actor, scene, or aspect of the performance. Feel free to praise, criticize, or simply note an observation or two.Monday, November 3, 2008
"The Abstract and Brief Chronicles of the Time" Part I
Your turn to play critic! Briefly, what did you think of the performance of Hamlet at St. Joseph's College? If possible, try to limit your comment(s) in scope to a single actor, scene, or aspect of the performance. Feel free to praise, criticize, or simply note an observation or two.
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19 comments:
Maybe it's just the way I saw it but I thought the actor who played Polonius sort of stole the show. I liked the way he played the character. He was very involved with the role and, since the actors included the audience in the play, he seemed to me to be the one who interacted with the audience the most, which makes the play that much more enjoyable. Everybody else did a great job, the actor who played Horatio also seemed as if he could've stole the show, but to me the actor who played Polonius was just so perfect for the part that I noticed him more than anyone else in the play
I know that it was the very beginning of the play, well actually it really wasn’t even the play, but I really enjoyed the song that the cast performed in the beginning. It summarized the play extremely well. I was surprised that all of the “hidden” messages that I had missed over the summer they nailed. What truly stands out in my mind is when the queen, in one of her only lines, stood out of the line and said “and Hamlet loves his mommy,” which was funny now that I knew the entire Oedipus complex. Moreover this beginning made way for the rest of the comical vive that would be seen throughout the play, like Hamlet wearing his boot.
I thought the characters did an amazing job with their roles. The actors had their own unique personalities and they spoke their lines not just as if they were reading them from a script but how they would be spoken in real conversation. The way the actors portrayed their characters were a way to connect on a deeper level than just reading the play and seeing what each said to the other. It also gave me a different perspective on characters like Laertes, because you could see the close relationship he had with his sister, and I really couldn't hate him for trying to protect her. I guess you might call it expanded personality or something, but I loved it.
I thought that Ophelia was amazing. She played the role of insane extremely well, and the actions were so perfect that they did not feel pre-meditated. Whenever she was on stage, be it with Hamlet, Laertes, or Polonius, I felt as if each line was the most important.
I also thought the play within a play scene was done very well because it made me understand what was going on a lot easier. It is always confusing when a performance is pretending to put on a performance, but in action it was very funny and made me understand where the characters were in association with each other.
And finaly, I think that adding faces to names only made the play better. I could feel their emotions as they said the lines, making it easier to understand and remember the important ones. And yes, this would have been extremely helpful if we had seen it before the test. :)
I agree with Toni. My favorite part of the entire play was before it even started. I thought the beginning song sung by the cast was hilarious. All of the underlying messages were turned into jokes. It summarized the whole play in a few rhyming lines and it got me interested so that i felt like i wasn't about to just watch another boring play. I liked that it was catchy and put a modern twist on Hamlet in my eyes. I wish someone had sung this to me when i was reading Hamlet during the summer.
I agree with Kristen. My favorite part would have to be Ophelia in general. I believe that the actress that portrayed Ophelia was phenominal. Her dipiction of Ophelia losing her mind was incredible, for me she was Ophelia. While Ophelia was "losing it" I could not turn away.She even brought some humor to the character. She had my attention the entire time. She was the perfect Ophelia. She did a great job in bringing this character to life. Also, Hamlet was incredible as well. His madness was portrayed perfectly just as Ophelia's was. Bravo! oh and I also agree with Kristen about seeing this before the test :)
katie agreed with me! and said bravo...haha no comment, i just wanted to say that. and this is the 4th time I've had to re-do my identity...because my password NEVER works when I go back on. I'm running out of e-mail addresses, just so you know. lol
yeah so i gotta agree with toni and nicole here. the lil song before the play was really the cherry on top of a hamlet sundae. dammit i want ice cream. well it made a lot of sense and cleared up the play a lil bit even though we did plow through it in class. so i guess then i have to say it cleared up the lil that was fuzzy. kinda wish we saw the play before reading the book...or atleast the lil summary =]
I have to agree with a good few of you. Personally, I didn't like the actress who played Ophelia whatsoever. Although I thought the play was great over all, she was the one aspect of it that I was unhappy with. Early on in the play, I felt that the actress was incredibly stiff. And despite who she seemed to become more lively, specifically in Ophelia's final scene, it still seemed like she was holding back. There was just so much more that I feel she could have one with the rolw.
oops. in my prior post, i had meant to write 'disagree with a good few of you'.
I really enjoyed going to see “Hamlet.” I got a completely new perspective by getting to sit on stage while watching it; I noticed things that I may have missed while just sitting in the audience. For example during the fight scene, if I had just been sitting in the audience I would have only been concentrating on Laertes and Hamlet. However, since I was sitting on stage I was paying closer attention to the other actors’ facial expressions. It was really interesting to see how they acted during the scene. Cladius tried to act as if nothing suspicious was going on. There were also little actions, like the simple act of changing where they were standing that effect the way parts of the play were interpreted. I was able to notice these a lot better since I was sitting on stage. As a whole, I think the play was performed really well. I think the extra stuff they had before it started was interesting too; it really got the audiences attention.
Well obviously Hamlet was the star of the show, since the play is named after him, but anyway I think he did a really great job. Everyone else could have done great but if he messed up it would have ruined it. Hamlet was perfect, his emotions were so completely in line with the part he was acting and from where we were sitting, on the stage, we could see every emotion, every facial expression and he wore them perfectly. He truly WAS HAMLET. Also I thought he did the nunnery scene really well in which he has to act crazy yet slip Ophelia some sincere hints. He played them perfectly and I thought wearing his shoe on his arm was the best move ever !!!!!!!
I have to agree with Michelle when talking about the actress who played Ophelia, at the beginning of the play her acting seemed rather artificial, but not in the Polonius art sort of way. The way she spoke didn't really seem all that natural to me; I could tell that i was watching a play with her. Idk, maybe Im just being too critical, but the insane parts she played were good though. I thought it was interesting that the way she was singing was actually melodic, rather than the screaming or sobbing I heard in previous imterpretations. As Sebby said, Polonius was my favorite character; he definatly wasn't the Polonius I expected. I always saw Polonius as a skinny senile old man, rather than this tubby and hilariously absurd one. I think my favorite part was when he was calling the audience peasants, or common folk, or something like that. I love how he constantly became lost in his own words, like when he was saying "brevity is the soul of wit" yadda yadda yadda, and when he randomly paused while talking as if he forgot his lines, does anyone else remember that? If he actually did forget his line, i think he did an awesome jod hiding it. Ha my word verification is quesso, cheese en espaniol.
Well first of all, I really liked Ophelia. I thought the final seen she did was really well done on her part, but some of the surrounding cast's reaction wasn't what I expected. The girl is cookoo bananas and they just kind of watched it like you stare at a kid having a tantrum in the middle of the super market. Maybe that's what happens when you go into shock, but i kind of wished they looked like they just got stabed in the stomach, because thats probably the kind of pain you feel when you see a loved one as a shell of their being. Hamlet was hysterical, but he didn't make Hamlet a stupid character and i appreciated that. His mannerisms were comedic but appropriate. I definately liked him better then Branagh.
I think that the best characters in the whole show were the two "actors"...I absolutely loved them, especially when they came out in the middle with all the strange instruments. they brought comic relief to the show and without them I honestly believe I would have fallen asleep. I loved the guy with the pony tail he was very funny and when the two actors began to act in the play scene....I thought the way the had many of the actors in the audience watching was fantastic. I just really enjoyed that part of the play. I wish we could see all the Shakespeare we read preformed by that group because i feel like i understand it all much better now.
First of all, I loved the song in the beginning! Also, I enjoyed the play a lot better then watching the movie. All the characters had a lot of energy and were full of life so it was fun to watch. It was great to see all of the different interpretations each actor made of his or her character. The play scene was my favorite because it seemed like a comedy. Especially when the actors came out with their intruments. Also, at the end of the play when Ophelia came out with the wet hair! that was so funny and she got so into her character at that point, that I was amazed by her effort.
Obviously all the people cast in the show were extremely talented...to be in the American Shakespeare traveling group, you have to be intense. =)
However, the people I was truly most impressed by were the man who played Horatio, the late King Hamlet/Gravedigger/Actor/every awesome part in the show, Hamlet and Polonius. The two people that led the pre-show were seriously funny but the woman didn't pull off being a guy. I understand she played the roll in a female-esque way, but it really didn't cut it for me. Horatio, I thought was amazing. I seriously felt like he WAS Horatio, especially at the end as he held Hamlet dying... He just really played it well.
I was truly impressed by Hamlet's performance as well. His ability to shift so quickly (and frequently) from anger to hesitance to humorous was cRaZy. Yes. I did just say that. I kind of felt like the guy who played Horatio orginally auditioned for Hamlet... (random thought, I just wanted to add it.)
I completely agree with Sebby about Polonius. When I read Hamlet, the character really didn't appeal to me. He was just annoying. In this show, however, the guy was able to transform Polonius into a kind of funny and jovial character rather than just grovelling and slimy...like I had initially pictured.
The only character I didn't like was Ophelia. The girl just wasn't strong enough I felt. Her acting was too obvious. It was obvious that she WAS acting...where with characters like Gertrude and the Gravedigger, it really seemed like that's who they legitimately were.
Okay I seriously really tempted to say "legit."
I read Ophelia as so complex and so "multi-faceted" and that girl kind of played her down. I guess... I just felt that she was missing something.
I meant to say that I seriously WAS just tempted to use the term "legit."
I had fun watching Hamlet. The actors turned it into something I didn't expect- very lively. Some of the characters, like Ophelia, I thought were trying too hard to let us know their emotions. But that's probably just because my interpretation of Ophelia when I read the play was not too much like the Ophelia that the girl played. I pictured Ophelia as more of the type of person where when you look at her, you know she has a story behind that face, and you want her to talk more and more so you can figure it out. Oh well, the play was amazing, really. It was hysterical when Hamlet put his shoe on his hand and started talking. WOW. Seeing it from the side was cool, because sometimes the actors would be talking directly TO you, so I'd be put in the "Hamlet-zone." I agree, the song at the beginning was so fantastic.
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