I Am Hamlet is a play by Richard James, available by online publisher and rights agent Lazy Bee and apparently award-winning. With its am-dram setting and pseudo intellectualism, it’s been a hit amongst amateur theatre companies for the past couple of years, elsewhere it had a mixed reception. Importantly, this week at The Wardrobe it’s the turn of Bristol-based company, Page2Stage.
The one-act play begins when an am-dram director is approached by a strange actor, putting himself forward for the part of Hamlet in an upcoming production. Very quickly a kind of off-the-cuff rehearsal develops, with discussions about theatre, Shakespeare and the nature of revenge. Richard James in his writing shows a good understanding of Shakespeare’s original, often drawing on the meta-theatricality and quoting the Bard himself. Ultimately though the play reads like a kind of Idiot’s Guide to Hamlet, with long discussions about the plot which do nothing to aid the narrative of this play (“Listen to how much I know about Hamlet,” you can almost hear the author cry.)
Page2Stage are very much presenting a straight version of the direction-heavy text and though they do a convincing job of bringing the two characters to life, they don’t add much to the original script. Essentially, it’s a clear-cut transition from page to stage with limited direction and a patent lack of imagination. For example, the constant use of O Fortuna is written into the text and gives the play a distinctly amateurish air. The two actors, within a 50-minute performance, do not do so much as cross sides in the small space. Thus the restricting staging creates an unnatural and restrained atmosphere.
Mike Haslett who plays the actor and Eddy Martin (playing the director) are both interesting performers with individual potential. Mike Haslett in particular has an intensity which grips you throughout and his transition within the play’s fairly obvious plot-twist is very subtly done. Martin on the other hand lacks the status which is very much required for the superficial role of the Director. The play rests on a singular revelation – a very simple device (the twist) which reverses the statuses of the two men. Therefore, the sense of status and power-play throughout is essential but sadly lacking in this production, most notably (but not only) because the Director doesn’t appear to hold any power in the first place.
In all, the play is somewhat lacking in direction. The two performers together seem unrehearsed and over-supressed with no sense of timing and a lack of atmosphere. The meta-theatrical discussions within the play about voice and diction also do little but draw out both actors’ inadequacies in this department. The script – though incredibly transparent – has a pleasing and clear-cut status game, laden with self-referential comedy and pithiness.
IfPage2Stage are to progress, they need to find a sense of liberation by freeing themselves up onstage, using space and gesture, for example, to create movement and status. They need to uncover the sense of fun within the play – they need to play Richard James’ game. ★★☆☆☆ Chris White 9/07/15
