Hamlet @ MARK TAPER FORUM

Edward Hong – The Nerds Of Color

With the promise of Center Theatre Group‘s Hamlet (both adapted and directed by Robert O’Hara) being bold and daring for the new generation, it is odd to say that despite a very able & entertaining cast and some novel ideas, this production could do without the first half entirely and leave just the second half and even then, still doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of being bold or daring. Was it entertaining? Sure. Was it necessary? No. Read more…

Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA

I’ve heard a couple of remarks that ol’ Will must be spinning in his 409-year-old grave thanks to Robert O’Hara’s assault on tradition, but I suspect it would be the contrary; I’m not entirely sure that often bawdy and sly ol’ Bard didn’t have this exact same thing in mind way back in 1599. I understand how some purists are shocked and offended by Robert O’Hara’s borderline blasphemous vision of one of the most well-known theatrical milestones, but I was all ready for it. Read more…

Katie Buenneke – Theater Digest

I think O’Hara’s production demands more familiarity with Hamlet than I had going in, so it was difficult for me to follow, and didn’t really land for me. With that said, I think it would be easy for a large subscriber-based theater company to play it safe, programming crowd-pleasing, uncomplicated material, and this Hamlet is the opposite of all of those adjectives. It’s daring, polarizing, and challenging, so even though I didn’t particularly enjoy the production and can’t recommend it for a Hamlet neophyte, I applaud O’Hara and CTG for doing it in the first place, and suspect it will have its admirers. Read more…

Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA

In my most recent review on this site, I discussed my general wariness about imposing new directorial takes or twists on Shakespeare works. Once in a rare while, these changes can illuminate the piece in an entirely new way, or imbue it with fresh life, but often, they’re not successful. And thus we come to the Melancholy Dane, who has more to be morose about than usual in the Taper’s new presentation of Hamlet. There are many things that don’t work with Robert O’Hara’s adaptation of the play, from an ineffective basic concept to an overall sense of imbalance, but it does distinguish itself in other ways. I’m pretty sure, for example, that no other Shakespeare production in history has ever used the word “cumdump.” Read more…

Deborah Klugman  – Stage Raw

“..in the end the apparent irrelevance of this adaptation to anything meaningful, its vacuous take on some of the profound and universal human conflicts that, one way or another. really do affect us all, does it in.” Read more…