BALLET REVIEW: HAMLET

JOHN COULBOURN, Special to TorSun
07 JUNE 2012
R: 4/5

Pictured: Heather Ogden, Guillaume Côté

For lovers of all things Shakespeare, it is, one suspects, an experience not unlike seeing a portrait of a loved one, painted by Picasso. The features you love are, for the most part, all there, but they have been rearranged to such a degree that it is difficult, at least at first, to recognize this as the face of someone you know.

The National Ballet of Canada’s new production of HAMLET, originally choreographed by Kevin O’Day for the Stuttgart Ballet, had its Canadian première last week on the stage of the Four Seasons Centre. And while it is, in many ways, a HAMLET almost utterly devoid of Shakespeare, stripped as it is of the Bard’s timeless eloquence, it is so rich in immediate raw emotion that it often, although not always, succeeds in putting a new face on a tragic hero some might have thought we already knew a little too well.

Designed by Tatyana van Walsum, it is set in a strange, otherworldly sort of Elsinore, dankly lit by Mark Stanley, comprised of elements seemingly lifted, holus-bolus from an ancient ossuary then placed under a microscope — a strange sort of bred-in-the bone interior place where yesterday collides with tomorrow and Hamlet’s grief-fuelled madness becomes palpable.

With principal dancer Guillaume Côté dancing the title role with sensitivity, intelligence and a sort of recklessness that is thrilling, that madness is particularly affecting, the full tragedy of the Prince of Denmark’s confusion and sorrow driven home in brief encounters with the lovely Ophelia (an ethereal Heather Ogden) and with childhood friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, danced with youthful bravado and swagger by Robert Stephen and Christopher Stalzer, respectively. In those moments, John King’s score — more of a soundscape, really, ripped still throbbing from a tortured, battered psyche — turns fleetingly and touchingly melodic, evoking the simplicity of happier days.

As Claudius, Hamlet’s murderous uncle, Jiří Jelinek, fairly oozes a suave and assured malevolence, while Stephanie Hutchison’s Gertrude — Hamlet’s mother and twice a queen but not much of a mother — seems utterly in this new king’s thrall. And while Brendan Saye gives us a wonderfully altruistic Horatio, Jonathan Renna’s Polonius unfortunately lacks the gravitas for the role of senior advisor to the king, and despite his best efforts, seems more like brother than father to McGee Maddox’s powerful, passionate Laertes and Ogden’s tragic Ophelia. As the travelling dancers, standing in for the bard’s player king and queen, Elena Lobsanova and Dylan Tedaldi bring a showy sensuousness to their performance, while Kevin D. Bowles is charged with having perhaps too much fun as the gravedigger, casting a sort of demented Clockwork Orange-ish glow over the proceedings.

Taken as a whole, this represents a major balletic achievement, although it is far removed from traditional balletic adaptations of other classics, both musically and in its angular dance style which, even at its most fluid and passionate, remains oddly disturbed. But it takes awhile to come to life — unfortunate for those, not insignificant in number, inclined to give up after a brief first act and not return for a second which quickly gets down to the gripping business at hand, arriving at a spot where, finally, often discordant music, served up under the baton of David Briskin, fuses with fine dancing and a timeless tale.

By the time the swords start to flash, chances are you’ll recognize the HAMLET you love.