SCR/Party Play with Ann Conway

S.L. Huang, Hamish Linklater (Hamlet), Betty Huang, and the Huang’s son Terence.  (Hamlet Honorary Producers:  Dr. S.L. Huang and Mrs. Betty Eu Huang/Huang Family Foundation)

Deutsche Bank’s Michael Davis and Doug McCrea flank Director Dan Sullivan.  (Hamlet Honorary Producers:  Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management)

Nancy Kelley, Olivia Johnson, Michael Urie (Horatio), Gail Doe

'HAMLET' PARTY PROVES 'THE PLAY'S THE THING'
By Ann Conway

'To play or not to play' was not the question for SCR First Nighters attending the post-performance party celebrating the opening night of Shakespeare's Hamlet, directed by the Tony-Award winning Daniel Sullivan.

There were mouthwatering pastries and frothy trifle being dished up on Ela's Terrace, along with crispy fish and chips, comforting Shepherd's pie and — surprise! — ‘Himlets' (a tongue-in-cheek version of the traditional Gimlet cocktail). The tasty fare and fun-loving libation were just what First Nighters needed after drinking in the multi-tragic conclusion — each member of the Royal Family dies, including the Prince of Denmark himself — of what SCR Producing Artistic Director David Emmes calls "arguably, the greatest play in the English language."

Sullivan, however, chose to eschew the wryly named drink. "I don't think I could do a Himlet," he joked. No wonder. Weeks of honing the three-hour production — starring model-handsome Hamish Linklater in the title role — was Hamlet enough. "I love this play — love its contradictions," said Sullivan, who captured his Tony in 2001 for Proof. "There are very few plays as complicated as this one. This is a play about not doing something, which is a very hard thing to make dramatic, and yet, Shakespeare managed to do just that."

Shakespearean actor and scholar Dakin Matthews, who played Polonius, sipped white wine as he pondered the circa 17th-Century masterpiece that weaves a tale of Hamlet's multiple woes — the murder of his father (whose ghost is played by Richard Doyle), the subsequent marriage of his mother Gertrude (Linda Gehringer) to his father's murderer, his uncle, Claudius (Robert Foxworth) and the twisted sentiment he feels for Polonius' emotionally delicate daughter, Ophelia (Brooke Bloom). Not even his best friend, Horatio (Michael Urie) can help him. "This is a play about a human being under extreme circumstances who comes to a point in his life where the contradictory demands made on him stop him dead in his tracks. He cannot bring himself to choose what to do," observed Matthews.

And thus, for a moment, the option of suicide is contemplated by Hamlet as he delivers his famous soliloquy beginning with, "To be or not to be, that is the question..." Linklater's interpretation was conversational in tone, contemporary and relatable, not as aloof as some classic actors have played it in the past, noted one newspaper critic.

"Hamlet should be a guy who is relatable for the audience that comes here," said Linklater, balancing a plate of food and clutching a bottle of water as he received ecstatic congratulations from the crowd. "He should be engaging. Here's someone who wants to live and have good things happen and suddenly bad things start happening and all of a sudden there's a tragedy and then it's a good night at the theater." (Noted First Nighter Marilyn Sutton, a college English teacher and wife of past Board President Tom Sutton: "I've never seen this play done with such youthful actors, or one that moved this quickly. Brilliantly directed!")

Bloom found it deliciously challenging to play the girlish Ophelia, whose sanity unravels as she deals with her own dose of tragedy. "It's a challenge to organically get to the point of losing it," she said. "I will surely be crazy by the end of this!"

Also on the scene: Bill and Elaine Passo, Geoff and Valerie Fearns, Peter and Mary Tennyson, Michael and Denise Moon, Bob and Linda Hovee, Isabel Perlinski, Tom and Cindy Houston and Robert and Betty Plumleigh.

Chris Anderson , Linda Gehringer (Gertrude) and Larry Higby	Tod and Linda White, Mick Bacich, Graham Hamilton (Laertes), Pam Bacich, Nancy and Kim Kelley
Hamish Linklater (Hamlet), Larry and Dee Higby	Visiting directors, all of whom will be directing shows at SCR next season, Bart DeLorenzo, Stefan Novinski and Art Manke
Marilyn Sutton and Robert Foxworth (Claudius)	Timothy Landfield, Nike Doukas, Daniel Blinkoff, Leo Marks
Wylie and Bette Aitken, Hamish Linklater (Hamlet)	Elizabethan Musicians play for the post-production party

Dakin Matthews (Polonius) and Betty Huang	Brooke Bloom (Ophelia) and S.L. Huang	Hamish Linklater (Hamlet) and his mom, Kristin Linklater

Hallie Mayer, Paul Anderson, Dakin Matthews (Polonius), Chris Anderson	David Emmes and Michael Urie (Horatio)
Gregory Itzin, Director Daniel Sullivan, Linda Gehringer (Gertrude)	S.L. Huang, Terence Huang, Michael Urie (Horatio), Betty Huang
Robert Eichenberg, Richard Doyle (Ghost), Olivia Johnson, LaDorna Eichenberg, Andy Johnson	Wylie and Bette Aitken, Elaine Weinberg, Jeff Marlow (Guildenstern)
Deutsche Bank's Michael and Lindsey Davis, Director Dan Sullivan, Deutsche's Melinda and Doug McCrea	Kim and Nancy Kelley, Hamish Linklater (Hamlet), Donna and Bryan Williams