Ottawa Fringe 2013. Prince of Denmark by Michael Lesslie

The choice of Michael Lesslie’s prequel to Hamlet, a witty, ironic and always elegant text, has been called by this British author “the stepping stone for young people into Shakespeare”.   Conceived for young actors, it would appear to be the perfect vehicle for this inaugural performance of Ottawa’s New Young Company, working in association with  Third Wall Theatre.

Unfortunately, this  text mainly highlights the weaknesses of the players and the direction of actors in general.  The play is characterized by heightened language which echoes both Shakespeare and modern adaptations of this language that try to capture the irony rooted in this text. There is even comic relief by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as British school girls . Lots of fun but not quite what one would expect and all this is  extremely difficult for young players who have relatively no experience. I would have thought that giving them a text written in a language  more familiar to their own, would allow  them to feel more at ease on stage, would have made this first stage experience much more beneficial.

They were not at ease with this language and thus they were not at ease on stage. I make an exception for Thom Nhyuus who played Laertes with an increasing  composure, and presence, giving us the feeling he belonged there. For the rest, the movements were awkward, and they all  appeared  uncomfortable in their skin, a problem that the director  might have tried to address. Problems with  timing and rhythm,  usually the responsibility of the director, also hampered the show.  The  sword training scene, done as  Shadow theatre  was a good idea and had much visual possibility  but the fighting looked  “tired” and one of the swords pierced the backdrop! At that point it lost me. 

The sword fight between Hamlet (Adrien Pyke) and Laertes (Nyhuus)  was well done  and the set changes worked rather well most of the time,  with the effective Iron-looking structures (designed by Graham Price) that suggested walls, and portals and all the elements of the palace that had to be shifted around regularly. 

Nevertheless, the lasting impression was that  this play was not a useful choice for this experiment.  They were performing in a show that does nothing but block their fragile stage skills at every turn. There is certainly a great need for a programme of this sort that emphasizes verbal skills, acquired by  working with the great classics. Still, it is not yet the time to bring out these great texts (even their prequel),as a paid public performance, without an absolutely meticulous preparation that takes the actors  over every breath and every sound that brings the text to life.  I did see something to this effect in relation to Laertes and at some playful moments it did appear briefly  in Ophelia’s (Alysa Touati) performance but her character leapt from different moods to the extent that it felt the actress was not controlling her performance and was just being erratic, whereas the author was probably fore shadowing the melancholy and instability which would lead to her suicide in the following play. I felt there was so much in this play that was directly related to the play it precedes (the irony was often very apparent) but it seemed that the director just skipped all the nuances so as not to complicate things.  Why then perform this play at this point in their training?

One could argue that such is the function of Fringe and one should not expect too much . Still I was trying to see the craft behind the performance, and what I noticed appeared disappointing.

We will be watching this young company with great interest to see how it develops. At  the moment, it is clear that  there is much work to be done.

The Prince of Denmark by Michael Lesslie

Directed by Jim Richardson, actor training by Kristina Watt

Set and Lighting by Graham Price

Fight coach John Koensgen