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Everybody is Hamlet.
Like Hamlet, haven’t some of us felt betrayed, perhaps estranged from our parents, tricked by people who were friends and neighbors? Is revenge the answer?
Probably most of us have experienced at least some of those emotions, which is why Shamus McCarty believes that Shakespeare in Clark Park’s “everybody is Hamlet” approach to William Shakespeare’s classic drama “Hamlet,” will resonate.
These days, those same feelings of betrayal and revenge can easily move beyond the personal to the collective, says McCarty, Shakespeare in Clark Park’s producing artistic director.
“There’s a lot of outrage and grief for a lot of people in different ways,” said McCarty, who is directing the reimagining of “Hamlet.”
McCarty would like “the audience to see themselves reflected in it. An experience that feels universal to me is grief, and revenge and whether revenge is worth pursuing and the impacts of that on ourselves and others.”
Staged in late July in three locations, two suburban and, one, of course, in the bowl of Clark Park, the show, co-produced with Revolution Shakespeare, takes the idea of “everybody is Hamlet,” very literally. Four different actors play Hamlet – all in the same production. Besides that, five other people, a community chorus of sorts, give voice to Hamlet’s inner thoughts.
Each actor takes on multiple characters. Besides Hamlet, the four main actors switch off playing all the other main characters including Hamlet’s uncle King Claudius, his mother Gertrude, his friend Horatio, and Ophelia, whom Hamlet loves. The community chorus covers the other roles – courtiers, soldiers, gravediggers, and a troupe of actors that Hamlet hires in order to uncover the truth about his uncle, the king.
McCarty admits it might be a bit confusing. But he has confidence in the audiences who assemble at Clark Park and the other locations. From experience, they know to come prepared to grasp whatever interesting twist they’re served on a Shakespeare classic.
“Shakespeare in Clark Park has always taken big swings [on the bard’s plays] and the audience has always followed us,” McCarty said.
So how might this Hamlet-heavy twist work?
Let’s look at the start of one of the most famous Hamlet monologues – the one that begins “To be or not to be.”
One of the four main Hamlets will start intoning “To Be,” but the next phrase, “or not to be,” — a dark rumination weighing suicide — comes from a community chorus member portraying one of Hamlet’s inner thoughts. By the end of the monologue, the first Hamlet will have been replaced by another.
As for the role-switching among the other actors, McCarty advises the audience to look for clues. Whoever plays King Claudius, for example, will always have a crown, and in rehearsals, the actors are practicing so they can duplicate Claudius’s same kingly walk.
There are more twists – the majority of cast members are women or non-gender specific, including the four main Hamlets.
Yes, McCarty said, both Shakespeare in Clark Park and Revolution Shakespeare want to move away from the idea that Shakespeare requires primarily male actors. But that wasn’t the point here. It was more coincidental.
“We were matching roles to actors,” McCarty said. The four Hamlets are Cassandra Alexander, Brittany Onukwugha, Minou Pourshariati, and Dawn McCall.
This is the first time Shakespeare in Clark Park has partnered with another theater group. Besides audience sharing, McCarty said he wants to elevate Philly’s vibrant theater scene by helping other groups gain exposure to Shakespeare in Clark Park’s audiences, which, he said, can number close to 6,000 by the closing show.
This partnership comes with practical advantages. Like Shakespeare in the Park, Revolution Shakespeare works on twists to the standard fare. In December, for example, the group, led by artistic director Tai Verley, added an interactive exhibit to Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure.”
In 2019, RevShakes, as it is also known, staged its version of “Hamlet” with Verley playing the lead. The role of Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, was performed by Alexander, a key collaborator, along with Verley, in this summer’s production in Clark Park.
As director, McCarty is able to control, or at least influence, the course of the play. But he has no power over the weather – the single biggest stressor for him and the crew with the summer season’s volatile swings between heat, thunder and torrential downpours.
“I’m always terrified,” he said. Even though he knows it’s totally useless, he obsessively checks the weather on his phone, all day long, weeks and days ahead of time. A desperate optimist, he’ll hold off until the very, very last minute before cancelling a performance. Last year, a downpour of epic proportions lifted just 30 minutes before the show’s start.
“If you’re down to put your blanket on vaguely wet grass, we’re down to perform the show.”
There are no specific rain dates built into the scheduling and this year and there’s no alternative indoor space. (Penn had provided some in years past).
So, what’s McCarty’s foul weather strategy?
“Prayer,” he laughed, “and the next day.”
“Hamlet,” Shakespeare in Clark Park and Revolution Shakespeare,
- July 24-Aug. 2. Valley Creek Park, 361 N. Morehall Rd., Malvern, 7 p.m.
- July 24; West Goshen Community Park, 1023 Fern Hill Rd., West Chester, 7 p.m. July 25
- The Bowl at Clark Park, 1101 S. 45th St., Phila. 7 p.m. July 29, 30, 31, Aug. 1 and 2.
