Saturday the 21st was Mer’s day, but it was on a slight delay. We started the day helping our freinds Zach and Londa move. The were moving from an apartment near our house to their newly purchased first house about three miles away. I had helped Zach move twice before, and he runs a very efficient move. It was even more organized with Londa – everything was boxed up and labeled with the location where the box was to go in the new house. We had a lot of people there to help, which included several members of the soccer team at one point. We probably had about a dozen movers, and we were able to get everything on the truck (and in cars) and over to the new place, and get it all unpacked, in about 90 minutes. Zach and Londa also always makes sure their help is well fed, so there was lots of pizza and cookies and such. Since I knew most of the people involved in the move, it was a very fun time, with good fellowship and good humor.

Once we got back home and got situated, Mer took me out for a surprise. We headed out, and went down several roads that I had not been down before, and we ended up in Solon. We pulled in to Solon High School and got out. I was a bit confused – there were several people in the parking lot, all of whom were Asian. I could not figure out what would be the draw for such a large number of a relatively small demographic. It turned out to be that Solon High School offers Chinese, but that is not what we were there for. I found out once we got to the doors – there were posters for a production for Hamlet. I was quite surprised, and a bit shocked. I had not thought that a high school would ever attempt Hamlet. I was quite interested in seeing how they would pull it off.

Quite well, as it turns out. We finally found the auditorium in the huge school. The entire production, including audience seating, was on the stage of the auditorium. This made for great intimate theater, but was a bit of a condemnation of Solon’s theatergoing crowd. There was seating in the auditorium for hundreds, but Hamlet was set up for seating for maybe about 80 or so. Since the cast of Hamlet was very large (about 20-25 students) and there were only four performances, you would have thought they could have had more people in the audience. In defense of the program, they did have to shift the starting time suddenly to 2:00 in the afternoon because of Solon going deep into the football playoffs, so maybe that threw some people off their schedule.

Anyway, the production of Hamlet was very good, with some excellent aspects to it. It was a modern production, where Denmark was set as a video game company. Cladius had recently taken over as CEO after the death (murder) of Hamlet’s father. The stage was set up as a board room on one end (with two levels), and a video game testing area on the other. The action of the play happened mostly in the open space in between, with some thiings happening in the board room area. As such, the set was simple and clean, but worked very well.

The set had clever aspects. When Hamlet was looking for the ghost of his father, he walked past the portrait of Hamlet, Sr. Very suddenly, a face and hands started to come through the portrait – it turned out to be made of some kind of stretchy fabric, and an actor was pushing against the screen. It was very creepy and effective. Then, Hamlet charged out into the open stage, and the entire stage became fogged in using fog machines that were located under our seats. It felt as if we were there with Hamlet, and it was great. Later in the play, when Hamlet kills Polonius, Polonius was hiding on the second level of the boardroom, Once he was shot, he staggered out from behind the curtain where he had hidden, and he crashed through the handrail of the balcony and fell onto the boardroom table. Very high energy and well done.

The acting was very solid all the way around, especially for high school students. There were a few students who did not sound natural in their lines, but the major characters did quite well. Casting was interesting and worked. Horatio (Hamlet’s good freind) was cast with a girl in the role. It added some sexual tension to the role. Mer put it well by saying that Hamlet and Horatio were good friends who could have been more, but were not. It also allowed Horatio to act in a more stereotypically feminine way – she could cry when Hamlet died, and it was very moving. Rosencrantz (Hamlet’s schoolmate) was also a girl, and she played Rosencrantz as a woman who flirted with anyone in power (including the king, Cladius). It was very effective, and added to how Rosencrantz was not really on Hamlet’s side.

Ophelia was very solid, except I thought her mad scene was too over the top. It came across as almost comical, when it should be a very piteous scene. Still, she did a nice job in her other scenes, especially with Hamlet.

The real gem of the show was the actor who played Hamlet. He was amazing. He may very well be the best actor I have seen under the age of 25, and maybe under the age of 30. He had a full grasp of what he was saying and infused his lines with proper emotion and energy. He had such command of his lines he was able to recite an entire scene with Rosencrantz and Guildernstern while actively fencing against both of them (and winning). It was just remarkable. I would stand this 18-year-old’s performance of Hamlet next to any that I have seen.

I was also very pleased with the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy. Many people think this is Hamlet musing on committing suicide. It is not – it is a speech about how Hamlet will probably die if he tries to kill the king, and how he could live if he stays quiet. This production got it right, and added dramatic tension to it. Hamlet gave the speech while assembling a gun, and at one point he points it at Ophelia (who is on stage) before putting the gun away.

All in all, it was a very good production. My guess is the directors decided to do Hamlet because they had an actor who could play Hamlet (not something that is a given at a high school level). Still, it proved me wrong in my suspicions that a high school could not pull off Hamlet. Kudos to Solon High School.

You might think the day was done, but you would be wrong. We headed south to Canton, and Mer took me to our cheap movie theater so I could see Julie and Julia. Mer had seen the film with her folks when we were in Maine in October, and she wanted me to see it. It was quite good. The movie is the story of how a young woman decides to cook through all of Julie Child’s French cookbook in one year. The film is cleverly interspersed with telling Julie Child’s story, played stunningly well by Meryl Streep. It was an entertaining film, but I still came away from the movie with a poor opinion of French cooking (too many weird things for my taste).

In rebellion against French cuisine, we ended the evening finishing up a gift card to Red Robin, a restaurant that specializes in burgers and fries. It was a fulfilling day.