"I Hate Hamlet" at UGF, Feb. 14

Lana and I went to the opening of "I Hate Hamlet," last night, and I can say with confidence that the show is as funny and entertaining as advertised.

If I were to sum up the plot in one line, I'd call it a love letter to theater, which I find ironic in that the name proclaims a hatred for the most famous theatre writer's most well-known work.

For anyone unfamiliar with the show,  it's the story of the character named Andrew Rally, a recently unemployed TV actor.

Clay Vermulm and Wally Bossie in a scene from "I Hate Hamlet" 

Rally and his girlfriend Diedre move to New York after his TV series where he plays a young doctor is cancelled.

The story starts with Rally being led into a retro-looking apartment by his real estate agent. The apartment formerly belonged to John Barrymore, a well-known Shakespeare actor with a colorful history. The story is centered around Rally's decision to play Hamlet or to go back to Hollywood and take a cheesy part on another TV show. Barrymore comes back from the dead in an attempt to guide Rally to take the Shakespeare part.

For the UGF production, Barrymore is played by Wally Bossie, Rally is played by Clay Vermulm, Diedre is played by Kristi Doll, . Tianna Harland plays Rally's real estate agent Felicia, Tim Stoddard plays Gary, Rally's Hollywood producer friend who presents him with a unique opportunity I'll explain more later, and Joanna Kauffman plays Lillian, Rally's agent. As Joanna was sick on Thursday, her understudy Krystine Wendt stepped in to play Lillian.

The show is directed by Ed Moran.

The best part, to me, was the onstage relationship between Wally and Clay. The way they worked together as a teacher showing the world of theater to his student seemed real, mostly because you could say it was real. This is Clay's first foray into acting while Wally has been an actor/director in many stage performances over the years.

Wally made the role his and his timing on his lines, his positioning on stage and his ability to ham it up like an actor such as Barrymore would, is worth the price of admission alone. 

When I say "ham it up" like a Barrymore actor would, that means being a person who's lovable but also totally controlled by his impulses. Barrymore drinks, he flirts with multiple women, he over acts, and yet you end up loving him almost BECAUSE of his impulses. It's a unique role and Wally pulled it off nicely. 

Then, when I talked to Clay last week for an interview in my Tribune article, which you can read here, he told me that the role was a great one for him because in it he plays a person who's learning to act, much like himself. Also, Wally's character Barrymore helps teach Clay the finer points of acting, which again mirrors the student/teacher role between Wally and Clay as people and not just their characters.  

The story, however, isn't just about a man learning to act, however. That'd be dull and I really doubt anyone would care to watch that. 

Clay Vermulm and Tianna Harland in a scene from "I Hate Hamlet"

The conflict comes from Barrymore and Diedre pushing Rally to take the Hamlet role and Gary's urging that he take the Hollywood gig, a role in which he plays a teacher with superpowers, for fame and fortune.  

It raises questions about what it means to be an actor, what it means to pursue art vs. fame and how actors deal with this conflict regularly. It's a fascinating dynamic. 

I also credit Ed for working with the actors and the tech designers to pull the show together. He's been doing theater for a long while and he knows how to make it work on stage. This show is more proof of that and he really gets the most out of everyone. 

Finally, I credit Clay for pulling this off and making it seem like he's acted in plays before. His dialogue with all of the characters, his internal monologues, the way he comes across as a hot-shot TV actor who knows how to go through the motions but fails to understand the craft of acting, all were presented with grace and ease. 

When I heard Clay was cast in the production, as he was new to acting I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Having seen it now, though, I feel he played the role the way it was intended to be played. I look forward to seeing him in more roles in the future. 

Now, though, that I've got all that gushing out of my system,  seeing as this blog is called "Good, Bad, Great (Falls)," though, I can't simply go on with praise without pointing out a few weaknesses. 

Here they are. 

Firstly, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed Kristi's portrayal of Diedre. She was sassy, came across as a believable character, and projected her lines wonderfully. She's a talented actress and I'm willing to say she will make any role given to her interesting. 

Kristi Doll plays Diedre in a scene from "I Hate Hamlet"

My critique is of the character she plays. Diedre is in love with innocence and the pageantry of the theater. Her ideal man is one who is strong and sensitive, bold and reserved and willing to put up with her craziness.

And is she crazy. 

Part of me wished Diedre had more redeeming qualities. By the end of the play, I was asking myself why Andrew stayed with her as long as he supposedly had. 

She's a 29-year-old virgin, she lives off her parents money, she urges Andrew to do something he doesn't want to necessarily at first, (even though it turns out he does,) and this part is worth repeating -- she won't have sex with Andrew, even though he's been the best kind of boyfriend a girl could hope for. It's fine to want to keep your abstinence, I'm not trying to make a political statement here, I'm simply commenting on how that seems to be the center of Andrew's frustrations with Diedre. It does help drive the plot, so I can appreciate that.  

I think the fact that Diedre's role works in the scenes she's in without making it grating speaks to how well Kristi plays the part. She brings a certain kind of glee to Diedre. She's a happy girl, even if she's slowly driving Andrew bonkers. If she complained about things or brought any kind of negativity with her character, she would be totally unwatchable. 

Before I start on my second point, I will say that knowing the situation behind how this happened, I'm willing to look past this.

 At the same time, a typical audience member who doesn't know what happened isn't going to know that Krystine was playing Lillian because Joanna was sick. 

Last night, I felt that the scene between Barrymore and Lillian lacked chemistry. Lillian was Barrymore's old flame and the scene sees them reuniting and revisiting those past memories and, perhaps, past physical connection. 

If the chemistry works, in situations like that you, as an audience member, want to urge the characters to get together. You hope they get closer and closer until they finally embrace and kiss or what have you. 

With Barrymore and Lillian, I was left expecting that Lillian would leave and we as an audience would be OK with that. 

Tim Stoddard as Gary and Clay Vermulm as Andrew in "I Hate Hamlet"

Also, I wish Krystine would have either gone with the accent in full, making it either as over the top as possible, or simply not have used one. Her slipping in and out of the accent made me feel like I was taken out of the play for a moment. 

I like Krystine as an actress. She's a versatile performer who has plenty of energy and personality. She's also a great improv performer. 

This wasn't her best performance last night, but like I said, I'm not sure how much prior preparation she had with the role. 

When I received the cast list last week, her name wasn't on it. I was a little surprised to see her there because I didn't even know she was involved. 

It will be interesting to see where Joanna takes the role when she feels better. 

Another misstep, to me, was after the scene with Lillian and Barrymore. We're subjected to a little TOO long a period in darkness. I don't know, I started to wonder if maybe there was a problem or if the lights were broke or what.  Maybe that was done on purpose, but like I said, it started getting near the point of "um, what's taking so long?" territory. 

Then the scene after the lights came back on confused me a bit. 

Before the lights cut out, we watch a scene where Gary explains a commercial offer to Rally where he plays a guy who's selling nuts along with a hand puppet. It's a funny bit because of the absurdity of the commercial and how silly commercials can be and how low actors stoop to find work. 

Then after the break, Barrymore is sitting on the couch watching the TV and that ad comes on with what sounds like Andrew's voice. 

That made me wonder if the darkness was supposed to indicate a leap forward in time and Andrew had gone back to Hollywood to do the TV show and commercial, or what. It was never explained, so I'm not sure what that scene was supposed to mean. Rally soon comes back into the apartment  and I realized where the setting was supposed to be and that we were still in present day. 

In conclusion, I recommend seeing "I Hate Hamlet." 

The humor is sharp, the costumes all looked great on the performers, the set designers made it LOOK like a place where a John Barrymore type would live, and all of the actors projected their lines well. There was never a moment where I stopped following because I could not hear them. 

It's markedly different from "Chicago" but in a good way. There is more than one way to pull off a great show. When I think back to last year's shows, the improvement has been stark. 

This show at times surprised me, at times made me laugh and made me ask philosophical questions about what it means to be a performer. 

Thanks to Katie Pipinich for the photos! :-)