Wittenberg
At Pacific Theatre until Nov. 10
Tickets: 604-731-5518, pacifictheatre.org
Just how did Hamlet get so screwed up, so To-be-or-not-be? Well, he went away to college, to Wittenberg University, a hotbed of religious and philosophical dissent back in the day. Two of Wit Us most famous professors were theologian Dr. Martin Luther who famously rebelled against the Catholic Church, and philosopher/alchemist/libertine Dr. John Faustus, made famous by playwrights Christopher Marlowe and Goethe.
Contemporary American playwright David Davalos has his way with history, cramming events into a single timeframe and making Hamlet a student of both Luther and Faust.
After his father is murdered by Hamlets uncle Claudius, Hamlet returns to Denmark totally confused. In thinking about killing Claudius, Hamlet suspects that Faust would advise, If it feels good, do it. But Hamlet is still Christian enough thanks to Luther to think that murdering is not a good thing. So the question becomes, as Faust slyly puts it, To believe or not to believe.
Davalos script is meaty, cheeky and contemporary except for Hamlet who speaks Shakespearean English. It is so delectably packed with literary/philosophical/theological/scientific references that you indulge in the spot-the-reference game and so full of pithy commentary you dont want to miss any of it. The study of philosophy, says Faustus, is for when youre talking to yourself; the study of theology is for when youre talking to God. And fun. Hamlet says his heart is beating like, Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum in other words, iambic pentameter.
Directed by Stephen Drover, this is a staged reading: a few lights, a prop or two, scripts in hand. But its so excellently performed by Marcus Youssef (Luther), Anthony F. Ingram (Faustus), Mack Gordon (Hamlet) and Genevieve Fleming (The Eternal Feminine) that nothing more is needed to make this both an irreverent and reverent look back at two world-changing scholars and one very confused Prince of Denmark. On the chance youve ever wondered why.
