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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Elsinore Also see Richard's review of Professor House
Of course, we know the fate of nearly all these characters long before they do. But they sense it too, on the backs of their necks, recognizing some kind of chilling, recurrent intervention. An unknown shock and tragedy seems right around the corner, in this staging at the Greenfinch Theater and Dive. The two hour and forty-five minute play, including two 10 minute intermissions (with an adjacent bar) is brisk and clipped. Andre Eslamian makes for a brainy, frustrated Hamlet, noble and a bit steamy as the young prince of Denmark. The play is regularly funny, surprisingly romantic, and very crafty indeed. But Elsinore is really the story of the rise of his Uncle Claudius, played here by the outstanding Joe Garner. He began to remind me of Monty Python's Eric Idle. Or perhaps Eric Idle's extremely subtle, evil twin brother. Which is not to take anything away from John Wolbers as the elder King Hamlet. He's powerful and tenacious and stern and occasionally a jerk on stage, like any good king. Act one takes place 14 years before Shakespeare's great play, and act two skips forward to 13 years later, a year before Hamlet, as the crown prince begins to see the overthrow coming. Act three whips up into a very direct new sort of prologue, as a slippery coup metastasizes into dramatic poisoning and shocking seduction. The play premiered in 2021, produced by Prison Performing Arts Alumni Theatre Company, with a cast of Missourians who formerly served time behind bars. Here, the prison bars are invisible and inescapable. The driving action is the trouble up north, as Norway seems to be preparing for revenge after the slaying of old King Fortinbras. An expert diplomat, Claudius is dispatched as troubleshooter, with disastrous results. Mr. Garner is memorably crushed in the role by unforeseen events, in one of Claudius' (nearly) private moments in the royal chapel. It quickly becomes the birthplace of a villain. Jocelyn Padilla glows warmly as Gertrude, a yearning queen, and Hannah Geisz is bright and endearing as Ophelia. Going back 400 years, I suppose every comic actor has brought something different to the role of Polonius (Ophelia and Laertes' father), and Chuck Brinkley manages to be both faux-clever and smartly idiotic in his whimsical new characterization. This royal advisor strains to seem wise, even as the actor himself shows a fine facility with foolishness. The very nice costumes are by Celeste Gardner, with fight choreography by Ryan Lawson-Maeske and props by Vickie Delmas. The surprisingly evocative sound design is by the director. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern start out as adolescent nuts, thanks to Xander Huber and Zach Pierson. And Claudius' first wife Collette is played by the very resonant Lexie Johnson, alongside their teenage son (Young Claudius), who's brought to life with jarring pathos by the same Mr. Pierson. Rose Reiker makes for an equally believable Osric, in clear-eyed service to the crown. The highly complex Joe Kercher seems to come out of nowhere as Lord Olaf (not literally, he's in a court scene earlier, over a milling dispute) and must be wooed at length into an alliance with the scheming Claudius in act three. They're both so clever that their big scene floats along with a kind of psychological luxury. It may remind you of the dainty yet grisly temptation of the assassin Tyrrell in Richard III. After Claudius had been reduced to mad begging in his prayers in act two, Hamlet is reduced to a footstool for the Lord in the show's final moments. That's when that famous ghost (Mr. Wolbers) first appears, in startlingly great stage make-up. Elsinore, produced by Chorus of Fools Theatre, runs through October 19, 2025, at Greenfinch Theater and Dive, 2525 South Jefferson Ave., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.chorusoffools.org Cast: Production Staff: |
