Playhouse on Park, West Hartford CT
through July 30, 2017
by Barbara Stroup
‘Tis noble indeed, to undertake this title but in an age of
speed reading, speed listening, and speed watching, the Bard is very much “on
speed” in Playhouse on Park’s current production.
The play opens with an address to the audience because the
actors are late and the props missing. So the shenanigan tone is set from the
start by three superb comic actors who can also lapse into iambic pentameter
when needed (but rarely so). This production is full of laughs – literary and
visual -with only a few references to the familiar serious speeches.
Dispensing with authenticity, all 42 titles (and sonnets)
listed in the program get at least a cursory representation in the course of
the two-hour show. The three actors (two male and one female) trade roles,
wigs, and titles while performing physical feats faster than a gymnastic
tumbling troop. There were so many laughs that those lines which only reached a
part of the theatre were not even missed. Most memorable moment of many was the
use of a red scarf after a throat “slitting.” The audience even gets involved
at times, and the play builds to a finish with “Hamlet”. Even more laughs and
surprises occur after the (phony) curtain.
Hanna Cheek, Rich Hollman and Sean Harris need not use their
gym memberships during the one month run – one hopes they are treated to a
massage after each performance. They are well-matched in timing, vocal presence
and their ensemble abilities are superb. Because of the pace, the actors must
be receiving some finely-tuned backstage support as well. This evening of
lighthearted, irreverent humor provides a great theatrical experience.
