Review
I HATE HAMLET
Gas and Light Productions
Starring Malcolm Deleskia,
Directed by Jeremy MacKenzie
Written by Paul Rudnick, Greg Spielman and Bill Baska
Runs until March 29
Pumphouse Theatres
Every kid who takes Grade 12 English mutters "I hate Hamlet" at some point. According to the Paul Rudnick comedy I Hate Hamlet, so do the actors who perform it.
In Rudnick's play, currently being staged by Gas and Light Productions, actor Andrew Reilly (Malcolm Deleskia) has fallen out of the spotlight in Hollywood since the cancellation of his hit sitcom. He moves to New York – where his girlfriend pledges unending chastity until everything is "perfect" – and the only role his agent finds for him is Hamlet in a Shakespeare in the Park festival.
After a séance where he pledges that he hates Hamlet, the ghost of long-dead theatre and film legend John Barrymore (Greg Spielman), the definitive Hamlet of the 1920s, is summoned to haunt the waffling young actor. Worse yet, Barrymore won’t return to limbo until Andrew plays Hamlet.
The production lags a little before Barrymore arrives, but when he does, the energy triples. It is through the intense and often very funny interactions of Andrew and Barrymore that the play truly comes alive and entertains.
Spielman is steady and convincing as Barrymore. His character has the funniest lines and rejoinders, and the chemistry he builds with Andrew is tangible, taut and consistent. At times, Spielman is almost too big for Pumphouse’s tiny Joyce Doolittle Theatre – not because he’s too much actor, but because he’s just a little too loud. But the development of his character from a self-certain legend to an insecure has-been (all the while remembering that he’s been dead for more than 50 years) is impressive.
Deleskia comes off fairly well as the tormented Andrew. Although his L.A. accent moves in and out at times, his character's head-butting with Barrymore is the best part of his performance. And, in the second act, he seems sincerely torn between abandoning Hamlet (and Barrymore) and returning to Hollywood at the emphatic and often annoying insistence of Hollywood director Gary Lefkowitz (Bill Baska).
Andrew’s frustratingly virginal girlfriend Deirdre (Caroline Buzanko), a modern-day Ophelia with a freaky Shakespeare fetish, has her funniest moments when she recites Shakespearean lines so badly that the audience simultaneously cringes and laughs. Although her connection with Andrew doesn’t always seem as sincere as it should be, the frustration she creates in Andrew certainly is.
Full of barbs against television, Hollywood and theatre, this comedy is entertaining once it builds up a little steam. Although the beginning and end are a little dry, the banter between the main characters is reason enough to see it. |
Copyright ©2003 FFWD. All rights reserved.