Set in 1517 Germany, we meet Hamlet Hamletsen (yes, THAT Hamlet) as he returns from summer study abroad to the Wittenberg University campus. Hamlet has learned some alarming information that has caused a crisis of faith, and he seeks guidance from his two favorite professors, Doctor Martin Luther (yes, THAT Martin Luther) and Doctor Faustus (yes,…you get the picture). What follows is a knock-down, drag-out battle for the mind and spirit of Hamlet, with unexpected consequences for all the combatants.
Wittenberg is erudite and thoroughly researched. It is controversial and passionate as it asks the BIG questions. It references historical documents, literature, the Bible, and Shakespeare. It is full of debate, speeches, and ideas. It is NOT, in Artistic Director Andrew Kirtland’s staging, stuffy, or slow, or pedantic. Instead, Kirtland’s production celebrates the masculine, muscular energy of the piece. He keeps his actors moving and physically engaged with each other and with the ideas.
The staging is somewhat hampered by an obviously small budget. Production value is really non-existent, and the audience member must forgive the anachronistic props and costume pieces, and modern eyeglasses. I’m ok with that. The production team isn’t pretending to have any real design aesthetic with this show; the bare necessities are present, and the acting really carries the day.
The performance space itself comes with its own challenges. It’s a rather remarkable, large, open room in the Carpatho-Rusyn Society’s Cultural Center in Munhall – a true tabula rasa, just waiting to be exploited for multiple uses and perfect as the bones of a flexible black box theater space. Mr. Kirtland and his team do a good job of creating a small, proscenium performance space for the show. Their use of pipe and drape to create stage areas and help with sound control works pretty well. NRTC brought in a lighting rig to create a simple, front-lit lighting plot. This solution to the genuine need to get light into the space is imperfect in its effect. Noise from the equipment can be distracting, and creates a sound barrier over which the actors have to project; though I am not sure what else the production team could have done to solve the issue – the place needs to have lights after all.
On the other hand, the decision to use video projections in the show causes me some pause. Without giving too much away, I found the videos an unnecessary distraction from the live action on stage with images that didn’t add anything to the experience of the play, a jarring solution to the Song of Solomon scene, and an intrusion into the otherwise low-tech immediacy of performances happening a mere few feet away from the audience.
And the performances are worth seeing. Adam Rutledge as Martin Luther is spiritual passion personified. His Martin Luther is continuously angry, but always, always controlled; he is all focus and pent-up emotion. Kevin Moore as Dr. Faust provides a solid foil for Rutledge. Mr. Moore is apt to lose concentration at times and can be less authoritative in his portrayal than is always wanted, but he makes up for this with a keen sense of humor and a brazen delight in “being bad.” Nick Benninger is simply terrific as the befuddled, troubled, tortured Hamlet. He is the perfect combination of funny and tragic. His timing is always impeccable, and his mastery of the poetic language required of the character is a joy.
Which brings me to a side note about the script – playwright Davalos has written all of Hamlet’s dialogue as poetry, while all the other characters in the play speak colloquial, modern English. I can’t figure out why. It serves to distance Hamlet from the other characters, making him seem out of step, out of place from the rest of the piece. Maybe that is the point. Or, perhaps it’s just a joke about Hamlet being a Shakespearean character. Regardless, for me, the only reason this effect of the script was in any way effective was Nick Benninger’s mastery of the poetry. Here’s a guy who knows how to play Shakespeare, and Shakespeare-adjacent writing.
The final cast member, Shannon Donovan, plays all of the female characters in the show: Gretchen the barmaid, Helen (yes, THAT Helen, oh, wait, not Helen of Troy, the OTHER Helen of Faust fame), the Virgin Mary, and Lady Voltemand. Ms. Donovan has more difficulty than the rest of the cast projecting her voice above the noise of the lighting equipment. She also has difficulty differentiating characters in her portrayals. This might be a result of these characters not really being fully drawn human beings, but merely plot devices, not to mention that these characters are literally the tired virgin/mother/whore combo to which women characters are so often relegated. Not my favorite part of the script by far.
Despite the problems with the script, it is a truly fascinating and thought-provoking work. Andy Kirtland and company have done the play justice with their scrappy, intense production. Wittenberg represents The New Renaissance Theatre Company’s first foray into year-round production, in addition to their Unrehearsed Shakespeare Project summer tours. It’s a good first effort, and I look forward to their next production.
Wittenberg runs through October 28, 2018, at the Carpatho-Rusyn Cultural Center, located at 915 Dickson Street, Munhall. For more information about NRTC and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.newrentheatre.com.
Helen Meade got her first theater job at age 17. Over the many intervening years she has worked professionally as an actor, singer, director, producer, administrator, production manager, stage manager, lighting designer, technician, fundraiser, and board member. Through it all, one thing has always remained true: Helen loves live theater. Some of her favorite projects include her educational adaptation, Supernatural Shakespeare, for Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Arts Education Department, directing the world premiere of composer Jeremy Beck’s The Biddle Boys and Mrs. Soffel for Tuesday Musical Club, Assistant Directing Madama Butterfly under director Kay Walker Castaldo for Pittsburgh Opera, and working with amazing humans and theatre professionals including Dan Anderson, Chari Shanker, Amanda Foust, Diana Hossack, Maria Levy, Ron Allen, Attilio Favorini, and her mentor and friend, Tony Ferrieri.
Categories: Archived Reviews