I Hate Hamlet
A Comedy by
Paul Rudnick
Performed
July 27-30 and August 2-6, 2005
at
The Boal Barn Playhouse
Production Staff
| Director | Valerie Gehn |
| Scenic Designer | John Vickers-Jones |
| Lighting Designer | Jason Zanitsch |
| Costume Designer | Abby Minor |
| Fight Choreographer | Jason Zanitsch |
| Technical Director | Alfred Gehn |
| Stage Manager | Maggie Lee |
About the Show
I Hate Hamlet
2005
In the 1920’s, John Barrymore reached the acme of his acting career in two Shakespearean productions, an electrifying Richard III and a famous Hamlet. (His only other Shakespeare role was as Mercutio in a film version of Romeo and Juliet opposite Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer as the star-crossed lovers). Barrymore had an affinity with the melancholy Dane. Margot Peters writes in her biography of the Barrymores (John, Lionel and Ethel) “one could argue that Laurence Olivier acted Hamlet, Barrymore was Hamlet.” Critic John Mason Brown found Barrymore to be “the embodiment of the Dane.” Acting styles and directorial concepts have changed since Barrymore’s Hamlet. but there is little doubt that his Freudian interpretation influenced the future Hamlets of John Gielgud, Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier, and Maurice Evans. When Barrymore’s production closed in 1923 (it later took to the road and to London) it had broken Edwin Booth’s record 100 performances by one performer. Barrymore’s record was broken fourteen years later by Gielgud’s 132 performances. Barrymore’s production could have run longer, but he got easily bored by long runs. There is little doubt that had he had more discipline and more dedication to his craft, he would have been the finest actor of his time. As it was, he dissipated his talent. In 1940, he returned to Broadway in the witless comedy My Dear Children after an eighteen-year absence. In My Dear Children, he played an aging, much married Shakespearean ham (Barrymore was married four times), a not-to-subtle caricature of Barrymore himself. He died two years later at the age of 60.
Richard B. Gidez
The Cast
(in order of appearance)
| Felicia Dantine | Susanna Ritti |
| Andrew Rally | Jason Zanitsch |
| Deidre McDavey | Caitlin Osborne |
| Lillian Troy | Bonny Farmer |
| John Barrymore | Bob Lillie |
| Gary Peter Lefkowitz | Patrick Brannen |
State College Community Theatre 