William Niederkorn reviews Hamlet 1603: The First Quarto

New World Theatre was fortunate to have New York Times writer and Shakespearean scholar William Niederkorn at our opening night performance of Hamlet 1603: The First Quarto on Saturday, July 8th. Here is his "unofficial" review:

A First Quarto Hamlet opened last night in New York. A tight ensemble cast of seven play all the roles in a production that is low in budget and long on art, and there are no cuts in the script. This earlier version of the play is about half the length of familiar versions based on the Second Quarto and the First Folio. Judging by last night‚s show, Q1 Hamlet is highly dramatic and well paced. The most significant departure from the better-known plot is that Gertred (one of many variations in Q1 from the more familiar spellings of character names) agrees to join Hamlet in the revenge of her first husband's murder. Gertred, portrayed by Gabriele Schafer, is doubled with the Ghost, which makes for a tour-de-force moment in the closet scene. Director Cynthia Dillon's other inspired doublings include Ofelia with Rossencraft (Alyssa Mann), Laertes with Gilderstone (Anthony Bagnetto), Horatio with the First Player (Robert Cross), Corambis (Polonius) with Fortinbrasse (Kevin Lind) and the King with the proto-Osric Gentleman (Thomas Poarch). Every actor has at least one other part. Jason Liebman said after last night's performance that he felt as if he were "being chased by the devil" as Hamlet because of the short time the cast had to work in the performance space, but it seemed to me that that gave his accomplished performance a nice edge. Presented by New World Theatre at Stella Adler Studio 2B, 31 West 27th Street, 2nd Floor, performances continue (in repertory with Priscilla by Jeff Love) through July 29. For further information: www.newworldtheatre.org.