by Geoff Hoff~

Hamlet is considered by many one of the best plays written at any time, in any language.  It is a play about revenge, actual and thwarted, about the consequences of action and inaction, about power and its abuse.  The character of Hamlet is rich and complex.  He moves from anger to lust, from gentle friendship and humor to vicious cruelty, madness to a semblance of sanity.  The play focuses mainly on the consequences of actions and inactions.  The language and poetry, the examination of the human existence, are suburb.

Tom Stoppard’s Ronsencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead is a delightful existential comedy that takes two minor characters from Hamlet and imagines their doomed lives as the puppets of fate.  The play opens with the two, on the road, not sure where they are, not sure where they’re going, not sure which is Rosencrantz and which is Guildenstern, flipping a coin which repeatedly comes up heads. Fate, evidently, is toying with them.  They end up in Elsinore at the court of Claudius and Gertrude, mother and step-father of Hamlet.

They are not the most intelligent of humans, although Guildenstern (or is it Rosencrantz) examines their circumstance with a constant stream of philosophical rumination.  Rosencrantz (or is it Guildernstern) is much more happy to just let things be the way they are, even when the way they are makes absolutely no sense.  Life pulls them along, completely without the benefit of any reason or explanation, inexorably to their death.  (This isn’t a spoiler, it says so right in the title, taken from one of the last lines in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.)

Where as Hamlet is about the consequences of actions, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead focuses on the supposition that nothing we do matters to anything at all, ever.  There are no consequences to our actions because our actions and our inactions don’t matter, fate will have it’s way and we might as well just get used to it.  The play is full of wit and wordplay with verbal gymnastics almost unmatched in modern English speaking theatre.  The tennis match is sublime, played with questions rather than racquets and balls.

The Porters of Hellsgate took the novel idea to juxtapose these two very different plays in repertory with each other, both plays using the same cast members (with the exception of Gertrude, due to a last minute cast change.)  This works well, for the most part, and points up the very different intent, effect and mood of these two brilliant plays in a very intriguing way.

One of the things that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern points up rather nicely and to wonderful comic effect, is the refusal of anyone in Hamlet (for various reasons) to imagine that the prince’s madness is due to his father’s death and his mother’s quick marriage to his uncle. Rosencrantz says, “To sum up: your father, whom you love, dies, you are his heir, you come back to find that hardly was the corpse cold before his young brother popped on to his throne and into his sheets, thereby offending both legal and natural practice. Now, why exactly are you behaving in this extraordinary manner?”  To which Guildenstern, pretending to be Hamlet, says, “I can’t imagine.”

I have read Hamlet, probably, more times than any other play, I have seen many if not most  movie adaptations of it, and have worked on several of the speeches in it for various classes and auditions, so I was surprised to realize that I’ve never seen a live production of it.  It is a very interesting experience watching a performance of something I know so well.  Moments ring in concert with my imagination, moments ring in harmony and some ring in discord, which makes me ponder my interpretation, or the production’s, or both.

Of the two productions that the Porters present, Hamlet is the more successful, largely due to the performances of Charles Pasternak as Hamlet and Eddie Castuera as Horatio, two of the founding members of the company.  Mr. Castuera’s is a quieter, more grounded, restrained and thoughtful performance.  He disappears into the circumstances and is very affecting.  Mr. Pasternak’s performance is grand, extravagant, showy, audacious and utterly effective.  He is, in short, magnificent.  He swings from mood to mood, humor to pathos, madness to sanity with an alacrity that serves Shakespeare’s play well.  The third founding member of the company, Jack Leahy, is fine, also, as Claudius.  There were some less honed, less experienced performances and a couple of unfortunate ones, (this is LA small theatre, after all, and it seems to be difficult to people smaller roles with experienced actors, a sad thing) but the main actors more than made up for them.

I was concerned, when I heard these two plays were being presented in the Flight Theatre, upstairs at the Complex, because it is such a small space, but they used the space well and, even in the final scene where everyone is on stage, dead or dying, it didn’t seem overly crowded.

With the level of performances, it was odd that some of the tech aspects of the production were, simply, sloppy.  The props used for the various letters, proclamations and notices were obviously made out of copy paper, had no seals and were even more obviously blank.  The decanter of wine used in several scenes still had a price tag on the bottom.  The program says there will be one 15 minute intermission in both plays, although there are two in Hamlet.  As much passion and exactitude as these people bring to their performances, it is puzzling that they don’t bring much to the actual production.

The costumes, by Jessica Pasternak, were odd and a bit off-putting.  They were a combination of modern dress with flourishes of the Elizabethan about the edges.  Men’s coats were, for the most part, suit coats with the sleeves cut off warn over puffy shirt-sleeves.  The pants were mostly modern, the shoes were often punk boots.  Polonius wore a very traditional court robe and official chain, but had on wire-rimmed glasses.  The women seemed in period, or at least in a period.  According to the press release, the intention of this was that the “… literally timeless costumes… support the action of this timeless play.”  These costumes worked better in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern than Hamlet, but even there were a bit distracting.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern wasn’t as polished as Hamlet, although there were a few distractions during the performance I saw of it – one gentleman in the audience laughed a very loud, forced laugh every few seconds that seemed designed to prove he understood and appreciated the play rather than a genuine reaction to it.  Usually, a big laugher in an audience will get the rest of the audience laughing.  This gentleman simply intimidated the rest of us.  This is no fault of the production or cast.  Also, however, the cast of Hamlet was in the lobby of the theatre when they weren’t being featured on stage, talking loudly.  Shame on them.

Hamlet was played by Charles Pasernak, who also directed Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead.  Rosencrantz was played by Thomas Bigley, who also directed Hamlet.  Jack Leahy was Claudius.  Gertrude was played by Jessica Temple in Hamlet, and Maja Miletich in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  Polonius was Jamey Hecht, Laertes was Alex Parker.  Taylor Fisher played Ophelia.  Horatio was Eddie Castuera and Mark Cover was the 1st Player.  Other cast members included Angele Dayer, Christina McKinnon, Nicholas Neidorf, Mark Nager and Kevin Kelley.

Hamlet plays Thursdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through February 13.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead plays Friday nights at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 1 p.m. through February 14th.

The Flight Theatre in the Complex is located at 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90038, at Wilcox west of Vine.

Tickets are $20.00, $15.00 for students/seniors/AEA.  A discount will be offered for patrons buying tickets to both plays at the same time.

Reservations on-line at portersofhellsgate@gmail.com or at (951) 262-3030.