Page 10
Tuesday, April 27, 1982
Daily Nebraskan
Arts & Entertainment
Performances maintain balance of Shakespeare
3y David Thompson
He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid
speech;
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze in
deed The very faculties of eyes and ears.
Hamlet
If an actor wants to do Shakespeare
well, he must walk a narrow line. On one
Theater
Review
side of this line fall the actors who get lost
in the; rhythm and flamboyance of Shake
speare's poetry. Their manner is so artifici
al that they may as well be reading out of a
cookbook. On the other side of the line are
the actors who pour their heart and soul
into every "forsooth" and "prithee" and
drown the role with their excesses. To be
good, an actor must maintain a balance be-
Graduate student
acts his own way
in role of Hamlet
By Ward W. Trtflett III
Do the names Richard Burlage, Edwin Booth or John
Barrymore mean any tiling to you? What about Lawrence
Olivier, Richard Burton or recent Academy Award winner
John Gielgud? How about Christopher Darga?
Theater fans undoubtedly will recognize Olivier, Bar
rymore and Burton as the most famous of Hamlets, as all
three have played the role of the vengeful prince of Den
mark. Gielgud, Burlage and Booth have also played Ham
let, although their performances were on stage, not film.
Fans of the University Theater no doubt will recognize
Darga from his previous roles: The swashbuckling roman
tic Don Felix in Beware of Still Waters, the teary director
Carlton Fitzgerald in Liglit Up the Sky and the troubled
Father Rivard in The Runner Stumbles.
Now Darga is starring in the latest University Theater
production, Hamlet. He not only has to prepare for his
role, he also has to be wary that people have a tendency
to compare Hamlets.
"It is really the role," the graduate student from De
troit, Mich., said. "When I first got the role, I was thrill
ed. But then I began to think, Burton, Olivier, Gielgud . . .
how could I possibly compare with them?"
But when Darga began to work on the Hamlet role six
weeks ago with the rest of the cast, he decided to ignore
what was said about those playing Hamlet before him and
do it his way.
"I told myself that it didn't matter if I compared to
those people at all," Darga said. "This is my opportunity
to play this role, and it will be my interpretation of it, not
anybody else's."
"Hamlet is one of the greatest roles you can ever play,
because there are so many different ways to do it. This
would just be my way," he said.
Darga's Hamlet is different than, for example, Bur
ton's. Unlike Burton, Darga is a calmer figure throughout
the production, and most of this is on purpose. For the
famous speech that begins "To be or not to be," Darga
intentionally avoids any show-stopping dramatics.
"The director (William Morgan) and I definitely didn't
want the slow, dramatic, important speech. We decided
that since I was reading anyway, why not just make it
sound natural, like I was objecting to some point in the
book?" he said.
"I figured there would be a bunch of people in the aud
ience who would be mouthing along, so we decided to
quickly run through it," he added.
Darga, who teaches two sections of introductory act
ing, has performed in three Shakespeare productions.
However, he had not seen, nor read Hamlet before reading
for the part in December.
"After I found out I got the role, I made a point not to
see anyone else do it, either," he said. "If you see some
body do a part like that, you have a tendency, even sub
consciously, to copy that just a bit. I wanted this to be all
mv own."
tween authenticity and indulgence. In the
theater department's production of
Hamlet, appearing until May 1 , there are
enough actors maintaining their balance on
that tightwire to make the evening enjoy
able and worthwhile.
That balance is especially important for
the character of Hamlet, because the entire
play depends on him. If he falls, he pulls
the play down with him. Christopher
Darga's performance as the troubled young
man is well done and holds the play up,
but he slides out onto the tightwire a little
too quickly. Darga does not consider care
fully enough the development of the
character as the play moves forward. As
tlK plot develops, Hamlet's mood and tone
should fluctuate more than we see on
stage.
Despair
First, Hamlet is mourning his father's
death. Then he encounters his father's
ghost and is ordered to seek his revenge.
Then he becomes tormented that he does
not revenge liis father's death quickly
enough. His mind is filled with "a thought
which, quartered, hath but one part
wisdom and ever three parts coward."
These are all signs marking the character's
slow descent into despair. Hamlet gives a
soliloquy at each of these stages, and Darga
does not differentiate enough between
them. He proceeds directly to "drown the
stage with tears" and leaves little for the
rest of the play.
This flood flows mainly in Hamlet's
soliloquies, however, and when Hamlet is
talking with other characters, Darga is
more restrained. He does an excellent job
with Hamlet's moods when other charact
ers are involved. One scene that particular
ly stands out is the scene in which Hamlet
comes upon Claudius, his father's murder
er, praying, and he contemplates killing
him. The staging of the speeches of Hamlet
and Claudius is most effective. Darga is al
so good at displaying Hamlet's skillful hu
mor and his clever taunting of the people
around him who think him mad.
Humor
Humor is found throughout this play,
and this production succeeds at bringing
that out. Aside from Hamlet's repartee,
there are the senile bumblings of Polonius
and the happy old gravedigger to make the
audience laugh in the midst of all the
pathos. Philip Stone's performance as Polo
nius is endearing, and his charm provides a
marked contrast in mood to another equal
ly good performance, that of Stephen
Gaines as Claudius, the stern, murderous
king. These two gentlemen, along with
Hamlet, are the pivotal characters. The
three of them succeed, along with a few
other good performers, at keeping the play
aloft and beautiful in its flight, as only
Shakespeare can be.
They are aided by a fine set, designed
by Cynthia M. Zuby. Three-dimensional,
sculpture-like panels are used as the walls
of the castle for all the scenes. They are
slid around the stage in varying, effective
arrangements. The dark surfaces of these
panels reflect the complex, pensive tone of
the play. Authentic reflections of the play
are also achieved by Clare Briggs' costumes.
From Hamlet's dark doublet to Ophelia's
flowing white to the regal dress of the king
and queen, the costumes reach across the
play's range in moods.
Despite a few indelicacies in performan
ces, this production of Hamlet succeeds at
maintaining the balance that Shakespeare
demands. What flaws there are with lack or
excess of emotion can be overlooked, and
the play can be enjoyed. For those who
have yet to penetrate Hamlet's murky
depths, this production will keep suffici
ently entertained "the very faculties of
eyes and ears."
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By D. Eric Kircher