More Matter, Less Art

REVIEW: Lantern Theater Co.'s Hamlet

by David Anthony Fox

It was Not To Be. Oh, Sobelle is a virtuoso. He has superlative technique and a plethora of ideas. But his performance is all about novelty and so full of self-conscious cleverness that the character never coheres. Line readings are deliberately perverse: "To be, or not to be" is casually tossed off in record time.

But it's a cheat. That soliloquy, an audience favorite, is famous for a reason. A Hamlet who subverts it just to try something different isn't doing his job. Sobelle has great moments, mostly where smugness and satire are effective. He's funny in the speech to the players. But throughout, he yowls, stammers and grimaces. He throws himself on the floor, or climbs the scaffolding like a jungle gym. There have been poetic, melancholy, romantic Hamlets. This may be the first Hamlet-with-ADHD.

 Sobelle's Hamlet is like a runaway train, overpowering everything in his path. Or perhaps it's Charles McMahon's direction that strives too hard for muscularity? The result is a production that — despite a running time of three hours — feels so rushed that it fatally lacks any emotional connectedness or lyricism. Joe Guzmán and Mary Martello are perfunctory as Claudius and Gertrude. Dan Hodge (Horatio), Dallas Drummond (Guildenstern and other characters) and Dave Johnson (Rosencrantz and others) are fine, but the use of this collective ensemble increases the problem for audiences that the supporting characters in Hamlet can be hard to tell apart. Melissa Dunphy is an appealing Ophelia, who inexplicably wears what looks like Bing Crosby's golf hat. (Costumes in general are bizarre.)

Yet a couple of wonderful actors remind us of Lantern's Shakespeare at its best. Tim Moyer is simply marvelous as both Polonius and the Grave Digger — this is a performance that makes the language comprehensible and still relishes the poetry. And Andrew Kane is a deeply touching Laertes — sometime soon, let's see him as Hamlet!

Hamlet | Through May 17, $27-$35, Lantern Theater Co. at St. Stephen's Theater, 923 Ludlow St., 215-829-0395, lanterntheater.org