We took a break from kittens this weekend to go see two FREE plays in downtown Cuyahoga Falls: one on Saturday and one on Sunday. They were put on by the Cleveland Shakespeare Theater, which tries to build community by presenting free theater around NE Ohio. We saw them perform Richard III last year, so we were quite happy to go see them again this year.

Saturday we got treated to some play called Hamlet that you may have heard of. It was fairly well done, and the actors playing Hamlet and Ophelia were very strong. Hamlet was moody and delivered his lines with ease. Ophelia was very pretty and innocent-looking at the start of the play, and she did a great job of falling apart as the play progressed.

There were some sound troubles early on (it was the first time the company had performed in this space), but Mer and I are familiar enough with the play to follow it even with just catching parts of the speeches. The male actors generally could be heard, but some of the women were hard to hear (especially Gertrude). They figured the sound issues out by about 1/3 of the way in, so it was all right.

One scene that worked really well was when Hamlet greets Rosnecrantz and Guildenstern (his friends from school). He delivers his lines very naturally, all the while fencing with a servant. This was great for two reasons – Hamlet mentions late in the play that he has been “keeping up with” his fencing, so it was good to see it, and it was impressive to see him so active but still able to deliver his lines. Very nice.

One scene that did not work for me was when Hamlet almost kills his uncle while the uncle is at prayer. In every production I have seen of Hamlet, Hamlet sees the king praying and decides to not kill the king for fear of sending the repentant king to heaven, and so Hamlet walks away (with the irony that the king then proclaims that he is unable to pray). In this production, Hamlet actually pins the king with a dagger to the king’s throat, and then when he decides to wait to kill the king, he cuts the king’s hand and runs off. I applaud the bold vision to try something new, but it did not work for me. First, the text has Hamlet refer to the king in the third person all the time, which is weird when he is face-to-face with the king (you would say “and send you to heaven” instead of “and send him to heaven”). Granted, you can make the argument that Hamlet is mad, but it did not come across as a fit of madness. Also, I think the king would have taken faster and stronger action against Hamlet if he knew that Hamlet was actively trying to kill him. The scene did not make sense to me.

The play was edited to fit into two hours, so probably 25-30 percent was cut from the play. That is fine with me, but I was surprised that the director left in scenes that are almost always cut (the gravedigger joking with a friend, the Mousetrap actors performing a speech just for Hamlet).

On the whole, the play was very good, especially once the sound was sorted out.

On Sunday, I met my friends Matt and Liz at the pavilion, and my friend and colleague Brandon came along a few minutes later. Mer was to meet me when she could (she was seeing Wall-e with some students). We got treated to an excellent production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Meredith taught that play for the last three years, and I got to guest lecture on the quantum mechanical implications of the play, so we are both pretty familiar with the play. The cast did a very nice job. The play is difficult for actors because the dialogue is snappy and often short, but the actors did well.

I was curious how they were going to handle scene changes because there was no curtain and there were no lights to bring down (it was outside). They handled it by moving small curtains in front of Rosenguild when they need to, and that worked for me.

For the most part (only one exception), the actors in Rosenguild were the same actors as had been in Hamlet. It was much fun seeing Hamlet relaxing on the boat with a fruity drink while “reading” a Maxim magazine. It was also amusing to see Hamlet charge off the stage with a snorkel and water wings when the pirates attack the boat.

Rosenguild is a funny play that is also deep. It raises good questions about post-modernism, religion, fate, and more. Getting to see it (for free) right after seeing Hamlet was a real treat.