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No one else does, either) and such immense cultural weight.
The two do agree on a certain monumentality, so every famous line (a.k.a.
the vast majority) is delivered emphatically for maximum poetic impact.
Farber does make several strong choices that could have been truly great had they been carried through.
Didnt she hear all that stuff about flesh melting?
Here Farbers invention hamstrings the irony.
(He doesnt want Claudius to get to go to heaven on a technicality.)
Butwecan hear Claudius saying that my thoughts remain below.
Hilfertys set consists of three walls of tall black doors around a black floor.
Farber, though, underuses the doors.
When Hamlet cries let the door be locked!, nobody moves to shut even one of them.
This world does look great, and it sets Neggas elfin beauty off perfectly.
But Farbers passion for the well-curated image keeps turning over-obvious and even self-negating.
And Ophelia enters for her mad scene absolutely soaked.
Its very hard to get that wetbeforeyou go off to drown.
So Negga carries the showor, rather, she tows it behind her.
When Hamlet nails his creepy uncle with his sneaky play-within-a-play gambit, Negga struts around like a bantam rooster.
Nor does her vigor build relationships with other actors onstage, who seem to be in another play entirely.
As it is, though, her work is memorable accessible, clear, exciting, vivid.
Hamletis at St. Anns Warehouse through March 8.
