This ‘Hamlet’ Strives To be the Soul of Wit

There’s a new standup comedian in town, and boy, has he got a back story. Such jesters often mine youthful trauma for material, but how many can claim to have an uncle who killed his father and then married his mom and assumed the dad’s royal title? Oh, and did I mention this guy is Danish?Yes, I’m referring to none other than Hamlet, that prince of indecision, at least as he is represented by the Sri Lankan actor Hiran Abeysekera in a National Theatre production that, after a succesful run in London, has arrived at Brooklyn Academy of Music. The new staging is directed by Robert Hastie, who made his Broadway debut last year guiding another British import, “Operation Mincemeat,” which turned a deadly serious covert operation from World War II into a musical farce.Thankfully, Mr. Hastie has not adopted the same approach for one of Shakespeare’s most popular tragedies. Anchored by Mr. Abeysekera’s wry, animated performance, this “Hamlet” finds humor in its hero’s flaws and foibles, and those of other characters, without diminishing his struggle; the result is, while not one of the most harrowing renderings of this play I’ve seen, thoroughly accessible and engaging. After the ghost of Hamlet’s father pops up, as usual, in the opening scene, Ben Stones’s set design immediately establishes the palatial grandeur of their home, with ornate fresco paintings hovering over elegant banquet tables as Claudius, the scheming uncle, revels in his new union with the freshly widowed Gertrude. Mr. Abeysekera sits alone at first, quietly sulking; as anyone who has seen or read the play could tell you, of course, he won’t hold his tongue for long. Both in dialogue and during his numerous soliloquies, Mr. Abeysekera’s Hamlet is distinctly spirited and sometimes smart alecky, punctuating his lines with wordless outbursts that range from sighs to howls. His brooding is not the kind you would associate with, say, emo rock music, or other latter-day forms of navel-gazing; you could more readily picture him, again, at a comedy club, offering a pitch-black routine, or perhaps at a frat party trying to bond with cooler guys over a shared sense of disenfranchisement.Mr. Hastie seems to have leaned into this vision of a quirkier Hamlet in casting other key roles. The prince’s loyal friend Horatio is played here by a woman, Tessa Wong, who brings a tender warmth and affection to the role that can seem sisterly or even maternal. Ophelia is played by Francesca Mills, who was born with a form of dwarfism but proves an enormous, at times blistering presence onstage, even as she underlines the naive trust that helps seal her character’s doom.Alistair Petrie’s brusque, casually malevolent Claudius is nicely offset by Ayesha Dharker’s palpably empathetic Gertrude, who seems to grow more concerned about both her son and her new husband. Matthew Cottle amuses as that old windbag Polonius, Claudius’s adviser — the first to inform us, ironically, that “brevity is the soul of wit,” one of many expressions introduced in this play — and Tom Glenister emphasizes the sturdy nobility of Laertes, who as Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother becomes Hamlet’s rival.Mr. Stones’s mostly contemporary costumes accommodate differences in character and interpretation, so that we see Hamlet in sneakers and a Blockbuster Video sweatshirt while Polonius appears at once stuffy and a bit sloppy in his suits and ties. Hamlet’s childhood buddies Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, respectively played by Hari MacKinnon and Joe Bolland, pop up looking like they just wandered in from a nearby prep school.Richard Taylor’s evocative, often menacing music and Jessica Hung Han Yun’s dramatic lighting, which fittingly incorporates a good deal of red, remind us that we’re not watching a comedy, but rather a tragedy that has been reinterpreted in countless ways, presented here with an emphasis on its wit and sheer entertainment value. In those respects, certainly, this “Hamlet” succeeds.

This ‘Hamlet’ Strives To be the Soul of Wit

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