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Fighting prince
CSC’s Hamlet will be no melancholy Dane
BY SALLY CRAGIN
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Commonwealth Shakespeare Company artistic director Steven Maler was angry during the last presidential election. It was a simmering resentment that helped him choose this summer’s offering of free Shakespeare on the Common. "I just didn’t feel like my side wanted to win. And that is the story of Hamlet. He said, ‘I want to fight back. I want to fight fire with fire. If Polonius gets in my way, he’ll be killed.’ " Maler’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, CSC’s tenth annual outing, will open next Saturday on the Boston Common Parade Ground (not at the Parkman Bandstand, as in past years). In the title role is Amesbury-bred Jeffrey Donovan, a film and TV actor who also has an NYU classical theater background. "This is a guy who’s devastated by the hypocrisy of the political climate, who doesn’t have the power under the current leadership to change its course without a huge action." During their first conversation, Donovan adds, he told Maler that he didn't want to be a "Melancholy Dane" or "Dark Prince." Maler agreed: "We wanted to push deeper into his journey coming into manhood and coming into the decision to stand up for himself. We looked at it as this transition from this schoolboy who studied everything he was supposed to in school, philosophy and warfare, but who’s never really implemented them. There is this conventional notion that Hamlet is this sad kid standing in the corner all the time, and Jeff and I felt this is not where we want to go." The cast also includes a number of Boston stage favorites: Will Lyman as Claudius, Karen MacDonald as Gertrude, Jonno Roberts as Laertes, John Kuntz as Guildenstern and Osric, and Jeremiah Kissel as the Ghost, the Player King, and the Gravedigger. Film and TV director Sam Weisman plays Polonius. "It’s an extraordinary group of people," Maler says. "That’s what’s fun working on it — these secondary characters." He’s also striving for a "modern" look to the production. His first inspiration for creating the playing space was the designs of Japanese architect Tadao Ando. "The set has a pool in front and massive walls that slope around a primary playing area." But design will be secondary to the text. "The play is staggering in its intelligence and detail and humanity," Maler continues. "It continues to surprise you every day." Hamlet | Presented by the Wang Center for the Performing Arts and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company | Parade Ground, corner of Beacon and Charles Sts, Boston Common | July 16–August 7 | Free
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