To die would be an awfully big adventure

[cyrano]

We closed out with Hamlet, and Dan Donohoe in the title role. He is not a bad actor--you don't get to do Iago and Caliban at Ashland by sucking--but there is something about his style that irritates me. In this performance, despite reminding me of Robin Williams too often, I had less trouble with him, and he was still good.

I like it when people try new things, especially with a work as well played as this*, but I felt like the players didn't fit well. The performance itself was flashy and I liked it, but when the rest of the setting is sixties (Mad Men or Mod men?) then suddenly flipping a single aspect significantly ahead without a discernable reason is jarring. And while I'm asking about jarring, what was up with the surveillance cameras? In the Tennant RSC production, you had the 'you never know who's watching' thing, but these cameras are on stage the entire time. You know exactly when you're being watched, and it's right now.

Despite reservations, I enjoyed it.

*Ophelia's crazy scenes were different and I admired them even if they didn't work as well as one might hope. Hamlet dies before finishing his last line, and that made me giddy.