‘BERNHARDT/HAMLET’: Dylan Baker & Janet McTeer. Photo: Joan Marcus

BERNHARDT/HAMLET
Written by Theresa Rebeck
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
Through November 18, 2018
American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd Street
(212) 719-1300
www.RoundaboutTheatre.org

By David NouNou

Playwright Theresa Rebeck is one of the few modern-day female playwrights who has made a major impact on the American theatrical stage. She is prolific and has good ideas. As in her previous outings Dead Accounts, Seminar and Mauritius, she starts with a great premise but somehow the plays never flesh out to full fruition.

The ambitious Bernhardt/Hamlet is no exception. Ms. Rebeck has Sarah Bernhardt (Janet McTeer) taking on the role of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The conflict here is that no female has ever dared play the part of the Great Dane. The public would just not stand for it and it could turn out to be her biggest debacle. After all, Sarah Bernhardt was the foremost actress of her day and one of the most eccentric divas as well. Her offstage antics were just as publicized as her roles of Medea and Cleopatra, as well as Shakespeare’s heroines: Cordelia, Desdemona and Ophelia as well as her renowned Camille.

Act I is saddled with long-winded passages from Hamlet. Ms. Bernhardt is having difficulty with all the poetry that is essential to Hamlet and decides to engage French playwright, Edmond Rostand (Jason Butler Harner), to revise Shakespeare and Hamlet and strip it of its poetry. This is where the humor is supposed to be. The plot is further mired with Bernhardt’s affair with the married Rostand. He forsakes his greatest masterpiece to do the revisions on Hamlet due to his love for Bernhardt.

The best scene in Act II comes when Madame Rostand (Ito Aghayere) forces her way in to see Bernhardt. Here, she presents Bernhardt with what will be Rostand’s greatest triumph Cyrano de Bergerac, but he has stopped working on it because of his love and trying to fulfill his obligation to Bernhardt. The scene then dissipates into scenes and passages from Cyrano and thus makes the evening interminable.

Kudos have to be given to the four supporting players that ground this show with their natural, low-keyed genuine performances; they are Matthew Saldivar (as Alphonse Mucha) who does all of Bernhardt’s divine posters but has problems drawing one for Hamlet, because he has never drawn men; just women at their glorified best. Next is Tony Carlin as the French critic Louis who has problems accepting a woman playing Hamlet. Equally wonderful is Nick Westrate as Maurice, Bernhardt’s steadfast son, who comes to knock some sense into her and her Hamlet folly. Last but not least is Ito Aghayere as Rostand’s wife, Rosamond; her quiet dignity brings reality to the forefront.

It is never easy for one actress to capture another actress’ essence, especially on the stage and certainly someone like Sarah Bernhardt of whom 2018 audiences know nothing except what we have read about her. It is Ms. McTeer’s impossible task to come up with a creditable interpretation of the fire that was Bernhardt. Instead, we have a petulant Sarah bossing people around to satisfy her whims and throwing giddy tantrums. She comes across more as the wonderful late British actress Kay Kendall and Vanessa Redgrave but lacking any nuances. It’s a full-throttle performance that, while enthusiastic, never varies much.

Alas, part of the problem is with Moritz von Stuelpnagel, a splendid director of the absurd. Remember his Hand to God and last year’s Present Laughter, both flawlessly directed? He has derailed the proceedings without imbuing any seamless shadings or editing. In this case, it is a free-for-all of the preposterous with no reining in of the rough edges that are way over-the-top for his leading lady and the plotline.

A high note of the evening is the set designs by Beowulf Borritt, a genius for any season.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published September 28, 2018
Reviewed at September 27, 2018 press performance.

‘BERNHARDT/HAMLET’: Jason Butler Harner & Janet McTeer. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘BERNHARDT/HAMLET’: (left to right) Dylan Baker, Jason Butler Harner, Janet McTeer & Matthew Saldivar. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘BERNHARDT/HAMLET’: (left to right) Dylan Baker, Janet McTeer & Jason Butler Harner. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘BERNHARDT/HAMLET’: Janet McTeer. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘BERNHARDT/HAMLET’: Janet McTeer & Brittany Bradford. Photo: Joan Marcus

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‘THE CRUCIBLE’: (Left to right) Ben Whishaw & Tavi Gavinson & cast. Photo: Jan Versweyveld

THE CRUCIBLE
Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Ivo Van Hove
Through July 17, 2017
Walter Kerr Theatre
219 West 48th Street
(877-250-2929) www.TheCrucibleOnBroadway.com

By Scott Harrah

Whether one understands Belgian director Ivo van Hove’s modern spin on Arthur Miller’s 1953 masterpiece about the 1692 Salem witch trials, complete with a spooky, ambient score by Philip Glass, seems almost irrelevant. Why? The material is so brilliantly written, it literally leaves us spellbound. This is Mr. Miller’s most complex work, and Mr. van Hove overlooks (if not ignores) the allegorical subtext about the early 1950s McCarthy-era Communist “red scare” in America many believe the show parallels. Instead, the focus is on the paranormal and the creep factor, from eerie lighting to a levitating girl, ominous wind, flickering candles, a lone wolf/dog on stage, and scribbled messages on a classroom chalkboard. Granted, this interpretation is unorthodox and infused with the European sensibility Mr. van Hove used in last fall’s revival of another Arthur Miller classic, A View from the Bridge. Mr. van Hove’s touches may seem affected, but this remains a gripping, intense piece of theater, even at nearly three hours long.

In step with the current trend in retooling classics, the cast sports modern clothes, with the young girls dressed in parochial school uniforms, and cast members drinking coffee dispensed from a 21st century thermos. However, it’s easy to look beyond the surface here and instead focus on Mr. Miller’s tense narrative about real-life events in late-17-century Massachusetts, and how false accusations and government corruption, coupled with religious fanaticism, result in a horrifying outcome. Allegations of “witchcraft” in Salem certainly have similarities with the red-baiting of the 1950s, and perhaps with all the finger-pointing and scare tactics modern politicians use to persuade the masses on the campaign trail.

The accusations begin when a group of local girls allegedly frolicked in a nocturnal “Satanic” ritual in the woods with a Caribbean slave, Tituba (Jenny Jules). After being caught by Reverend Samuel Parris (Jason Butler Harner), his daughter Betty (Elizabeth Teeter) falls into what appears to be a coma-like trance.

The “mean girls” of Salem give some of the show’s best performances. Saoirse Ronan (fresh from her Oscar-nominated performance in Brooklyn) is first rate as Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris’s niece and the girls’ ringleader. With her manic mannerisms and ghoulish features, Ms. Ronan is the perfect demonic catalyst for the trumped-up charges. She is the devil incarnate indeed. Equally disturbing is Tavi Gevinson (This is Our Youth) as Mary Warren, the young house servant who eventually tries, unsuccessfully, to prove the girls are lying.

Ciarán Hinds is excellent as Deputy Governor Danforth, the sanctimonious judge who precipitates the ultimate fate of the accused. Fine portrayals are also given by Bill Camp as Reverend John Hale, and Broadway veteran Jim Norton as Giles Corey, husband of one of the accused.

However, there are inconsistencies in the casting of other roles. Ben Whishaw is often passionate as accused farmer John Proctor—a tough role indeed, played in the past by everyone from Daniel Day Lewis to Liam Neeson—but he has little chemistry with wife Elizabeth (played by Oscar nominee and Tony Award winner Sophie Okonedo). Ms. Okonedo, while a great actress, is miscast here.

This revival won’t please Arthur Miller purists. In fact, it might outrage some. Regardless, the most telling aspect of The Crucible is how much the message of what some see as “good” vs. “evil”—and the ways lives can be ruined with slander and lies—holds up today, even in a production as unconventional as this. Be prepared to be bewitched, bothered and (thanks to director Ivo van Hove) possibly bewildered by Arthur Miller’s haunting masterpiece.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 8, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on April 7, 2016

‘THE CRUCIBLE’: Elizabeth Teeter, Saoirse Ronan & Tavi Gavinson. Photo: Jan Versweyveld

‘THE CRUCIBLE’: (left to right) Elizabeth Teeter, Saoirse Ronan, Tavi Gevinson, Ashlei Sharp Chesnut & Erin Wilhelmi. Photo: Jan Versweyveld

‘THE CRUCIBLE’: Ben Whishaw & Tavi Gevinson. Photo: Jan Versweyveld

‘THE CRUCIBLE’: Ben Whishaw, Tavi Gevinson & cast. Photo: Jan Versweyveld

‘THE CRUCIBLE’: Sophie Okonedo & Ben Whishaw. Photo: Jan Versweyveld

‘THE CRUCIBLE’: Saoirse Ronan & Ben Whishaw. Photo: Jan Versweyveld

The post Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’: A bewitching revival appeared first on StageZine.