Pearce plays a particularly wily and witty Polonius, an audience-pleasing center of any scene he is in, as he meddles making everything worse while attempting-usually wrongly, but plausibly wrongly-to decode Hamlet’s behavior. The first act of this production is particularly sharp-both in terms of the acting, but also in its propulsive clarity as we chart Hamlet’s bitterness and desire to avenge his father’s death, and how his behavior becomes a source of concern and puzzlement to those around him. The secret casting of A-lister Jackson, and effectively concealing him, is a mischievously positioned cherry on top. The experience is even better when the production is as good as this Hamlet, with Ato Blankson-Wood commanding and magnetic in the title role, and director Kenny Leon overseeing an engaging production that makes this most familiar of Shakespeare feel fresh and vibrant. This is culture as it should be: open to all. The stratospheric ticket prices of Broadway are absent.

The spirit of the city is visible and audible on stage and off. A looming cradle of trees sway gently beyond the Delacorte Theater’s stage. There are plastic cups of frosé and good popcorn for sale. If it isn’t pouring with rain, it’s pretty lovely just to be there (the buzzing helicopters overhead notwithstanding). You’re in the middle of Central Park, watching the Bard as the sun sets and night falls.

Jackson-a major Hollywood star hiding in plain sight, and a perfectly executed PR coup.Įven when the production isn’t great, Shakespeare in the Park is pleasurable-and an idea and ideal worthy of celebration. On Thursday afternoon, prior to this evening’s official opening of the show, the Public revealed that it was Samuel L. In the Playbill, the role of the dead king’s ghost-and whoever’s voice it is-go uncredited. The voice of Hamlet’s dead father, goading his son to vengeance, booms forth from the speakers in the Public Theater’s excellent production of Hamlet (to Aug 6)-part of New York City’s “Free Shakespeare in the Park”-its spookiness reflected in the warping projections on the brick walls of a modern Elsinore.

Supreme antihero 2020