This Hamlet is an EVENT, the first live Peter Brook production in Chicago in 30 years. Brook, now 76, is an icon who began directing professionally in his teens ( 1943 ) . Before he was 40, he had directed the greatest stars in London and on Broadway, had triumphed in films ( notably The Lord of the Flies ) and was co-artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company on the fast track to knighthood. When he was 45, he left it all, and left England, to found his own theater institute in Paris. His personal search has lead him deep into Asian and African performance styles, with the goal of stripping down theater to its narrative, emotional and mythic essences.
Brook's productions almost always are fresh, revelatory, beautiful, powerful, deeply felt, intelligent, and unexpected; seminal in ways that alter one's thinking about theater and art. For this Hamlet, Brook utilizes only eight actors and has cut the text by about one-third ( "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" is gone, for example ) . Scenes of court pomp are gone, as are most secondary characters such as Bernardo, Fortinbras, Francisco and the second gravedigger. Most lines are given measured readings in conversational tones, demanding that the audience be still and listen hard, focusing on the words. The hushed tones and extended moments of silence often create an air of unfolding mystery or of tense anticipation.
Does it work? Yes, it makes you listen thoughtfully, but there also are times when it simply is difficult to hear. Does it astonish? The simplicity and physical elegance of the production are very beautiful, and the grace of the actors is both solemn and joyful, especially Bruce Myers ( Polonius and the Gravedigger ) and Adrian Lester as Hamlet ( his death scene IS astonishing, as he ever-so-slowly dwindles to the floor ) . But stripping away so much actually removes the work from its context, while the generally low-key delivery restricts the emotional palette. Brook has created a meditation on Hamlet rather than a full-blooded production of Shakespeare's play. This may precisely what he intends, but unlike other monumental Brook productions of my experience, this Hamlet does not reveal the play to me in new or different ways.
The design elements make this Hamlet a lovely Indo-Persian objet d'art. The neutral costumes of white, tans, grays and black with Indian-inspired lines contrast with the papaya orange of the floor cloth and the brightly-colored cushions and rugs which are the only scenic elements, all designed by Chloe Obolensky. Philippe Vialatte has provided all-white lighting that shapes the play by levels of intensity rather than by color. The live music of Toshi Tsuchitori accents the work via Asian percussion and string instruments. The tastefulness and intelligence of it all are impeccable.
HARD TIMES
Written by: Charles Dickens
( directed and adapted by Heidi Stillman )
At: Lookingglass Theatre Company,
Ruth Page Center for the Arts
Tickets: $25-$28.50
Phone: 773-477-8088
Runs through: June 3, 2001
by Rick Reed
In order to make a theatrical piece an unqualified success, so many elements have to come together that one can hardly fault a company for being weak in a few areas, even when they have a hit on their hands. Unqualified...that would mean everything would have to be first rate, from the direction, to the performances, to the set, lighting, sound and costume design...right on down to the person who ushers you to your seat. It just doesn't happen very often that a theater company gets everything right.
Happily, Lookingglass Theatre's latest outing, an adaptation of Dickens' novel, Hard Times, is an unqualified success. There is simply nothing in its spellbinding 2-1/2 hours to criticize. The production is a glorious achievement, a treat for the intellect as well as the heart, as dazzling to the eyes as it is to the ears...in short, this Hard Times is a triumph. Director Heidi Stillman has taken on the daunting task of adapting Dickens' multi-layered and many-faceted story and skillfully transformed it into true theater: breathtaking, thought provoking and possessed of an aesthetic vision that leaves one in awe.
Dickens' story of the Victorian Gradgrind family throws a harsh spotlight on the merciless industrial milieu of the period, and contrasts it with the light and excitement of a traveling circus.
His story demonstrates how imagination and wonder can eventually triumph over a strict adherence to "facts" and hard work to the exclusion of all else. At the center of his story is young Louisa Gradgrind ( played with perfection by Louisa Lamson ) , who is suitably somber, yet enchanted with the circus world she witnesses one day by happenstance. Seeing the magic of jugglers and trapeze artists is a lesson Louisa takes to heart, and, although it takes years, she eventually loses her "earthbound" self and learns to let go...and feel. Lookingglass has brought this contrast and Dickens' thesis out with such candor and grace that one can't help but fall in love with the production.
Dan Ostling's set is a wonder of economy: its metal scaffolding moves gracefully to form a factory, a proper Victorian home, a downscale bedsit, and more. A scrim behind the scaffolding artfully suggests the grimy world of industrial London during that period. Lighting designer Brian Bembridge craftily employs that same scrim to show dreamlike scenes of the circus. And the crowning achievement of the entire design is the sound and music created by the ubiquitous team of Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman, whose alternatingly gorgeous melodies and somber chordwork add not only the appropriate aural cues, but create a sound backdrop for the entire piece that's astonishing.
Don't miss out the next in a long line of successes by one of Chicago's most artful companies. Hard Times has everything: it's the perfect marriage of form and function.
