Historical February–March 2009 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
For many actors Hamlet is the Mt. Everest of roles: a four-hour, 3,000-line trek to be approached only at the height of one’s professional powers.
As a result many productions feature leads – from Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud to Mel Gibson and Kenneth Branagh – who are well into middle age. That’s a fundamental misreading of the text, argues Henry I. Schvey, Ph.D., professor of drama in the Washington University Performing Arts Department (PAD). “Hamlet is as much a story of adolescence as Romeo and Juliet,” Schvey explains. “Remember, Hamlet is at university when he is suddenly called back to attend his father’s funeral, and there are numerous textual references to his youth. Indeed, many of the characters – Horatio, Laertes, Rozencrantz and Guildenstern – are university students; Ophelia is younger still.” This February Schvey – who founded the PAD’s Shakespeare Summer Globe Program in 1989 and who has served on The Shakespeare’s Globe Centre USA Advisory Committee – will direct a new production of Hamlet in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Set in the present day and using modern dress, the production is designed to showcase the prince of Denmark as “a very young man, trapped in a politically dangerous world that, despite his remarkable and profound intelligence, he is ill-equipped to handle the essence of the story is youth,” Schvey continues. “Much has been made about the mystery of the character – his impulsivity, his erratic behavior and swings of emotion. And yet if we see Hamlet as a teenager rather than as a middle-aged man, things that seemed incoherent suddenly ring true.” The cast of 27 is led by senior Sathya Sridharan as Hamlet, senior Justin Joseph as Claudius and junior Virginia Page as Gertrude.
Also starring are sophomore Julia Mellon as Ophelia, junior Iain Prendergast as Polonius, sophomore Dan Tobin as Laertes and senior David Weiss as Horatio. Sophomores Jonathan Levinson and Eli Keehn play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Performances of Hamlet take place in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13 and 14; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15. Performances continue the following weekend, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 20 and 21; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22. Tickets are $15 – $10 for students, senior citizens and Washington University faculty and staff – and are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543, and all MetroTix outlets. For more information, call (314) 935-6543.
Original photograph caption
Sathya Sridharan in the Washington University production of Hamlet.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February–March 2009.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2009_02.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
