Tag Archives: Chukwudi Iwuji

HAMLET: PUBLIC THEATER MOBILE UNIT

Hamlet (Chukwudi Iwuji) is back home at the Public Theater after Mobile Unit road trip across the five boroughs (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Shiva Theater at the Public Theater
425 Lafayette St.
Tuesday – Sunday through October 9, $20
212-539-8500
publictheater.org

After making stops at such locations as Rikers Island, the Brownsville Recreation Center, the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center, and the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House’s Women’s Mental Health Shelter at the Park Avenue Armory, the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit has come home to the Shiva Theater, where it will be presenting its stirring adaptation of Hamlet through October 9. The 105-minute streamlined version of the classic Bard tragedy is performed just as it was during its five-borough road trip, on a small center stage with very few props. The audience is seated on all four sides of the action, and costume changes are made in full view just behind the seats; the only concession to the more traditional theater setup at the Shiva is that the three rows of seating are on risers. Olivier Award winner and Royal Shakespeare Company associate artist Chukwudi Iwuji is both inspired and inspiring as Hamlet, the depressed son of the recently murdered king who is told by his father’s ghost (Timothy D. Stickney) that he was killed by his brother, Claudius (Stickney), who has since married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude (Orlagh Cassidy), and assumed the throne. As Hamlet considers what a rogue and peasant slave he is, contemplates the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, opines on what a piece of work is man, and decides that the play’s the thing that will catch the conscience of the king, Claudius sends Hamlet’s school friends Rosencrantz (Natalie Woolams-Torres) and Guildenstern (Christian DeMarais) to spy on him. Meanwhile, Hamlet also reevaluates his relationship with Ophelia (Kristolyn Lloyd), the sister of the brave Laertes (DeMarais) and daughter of the king’s right-hand man, Polonius (Daniel Pearce).

hamlet-mobile-unit

Director Patricia McGregor (Hurt Village, The Mountaintop) takes fun liberties with the staging, infusing it with modern-day humor that works not only for an audience of underserved youth and adults who might never have seen a live Shakespeare play before but also for a more experienced crowd of regular theatergoers at the Public. DeMarais is a hoot as a white hip-hopper, Pearce is extremely funny as the stalwart Polonius (and the gravedigger), and Christopher Ryan Grant (the player king) provides an appropriately foreboding percussive soundtrack. Not everything works; the character of Ophelia nearly gets lost in all the drama, save for Lloyd’s overemotional singing of music by Imani Uzuri. Stickney is a bold, confident Claudius, Cassidy is a poignant queen, but this Hamlet, as the work requires, belongs to the lead, and Iwuji, who has never played the role before, jumps in feet first, giving his all, often making direct eye contact with the audience to bring them further into the story. He does a lot of shouting, but he balances that with beautifully rendered soliloquies that (almost) feel like they could have been written today. That feeling is enhanced by some of Montana Levi Blanco’s contemporary costume choices, including a hoodie worn by Hamlet. Other fresh touches include, yes, a cell phone. Katherine Akiko Day’s set is just about as basic as they come, a small square area about the size of a boxing ring, where characters bring chairs and roll multipurpose boxes on- and offstage, creating an intimate atmosphere. The Mobile Unit production of Hamlet is a must-see for both newbies as well as Bard enthusiasts, a playful adaptation highlighted by a superior performance by Iwuji.

PUBLIC THEATER MOBILE UNIT: HAMLET

hamlet mobile unit

Multiple venues through September 17, free with advance RSVP
The Shiva Theater at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., September 19 – October 9, $20
212-539-8500
publictheater.org

“I always felt that we should travel,” Public Theater founder Joseph Papp said once upon a time. “I wanted to bring Shakespeare to the people.” Beginning in 1957, Papp did just that, sending out cast and crew in a Mobile Unit that would present free Shakespeare plays to disenfranchised audiences throughout the five boroughs, including prisons, shelters, and underserved community centers. The unit is on the road right now with Hamlet, which will be making stops at the Brownsville Recreation Center on August 31, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on September 9, the Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center on September 10, the Pelham Fritz Recreation Center on September 16, and Faber Park Field House on September 17. (Advance RSVP information can be found here.) Among the recent Mobile Unit productions are Romeo & Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, and Macbeth. This year they are presenting Hamlet, directed by Patricia McGregor (Hurt Village, The Mountaintop) and starring Chukwudi Iwuji as the Dane, Kristolyn Lloyd as Ophelia, Orlagh Cassidy as Gertrude, Christian DeMarais as Laertes, Jeffrey Omura as Horatio, and Timothy Stickney as Claudius. Once the tour is over, the production heads over to the Public’s Shiva Theater, where it will run from September 19 to October 9, with all tickets $20. The scenic design is by Katherine Akiko Day, with costumes by Montana Levi Blanco and music by Imani Uzuri.

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: KING LEAR

John Lithgow stars as an emotional King Lear in Shakespeare in the Park production that also features Annette Bening as Goneril and Christopher Innvar as Albany (photo by Joan Marcus)

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
Tuesday – Sunday through August 17, free, 8:00
shakespeareinthepark.org

Fut! Another day, another Lear. Over the last several years, New York City has been inundated with major productions of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. There’s been Michael Pennington at Theatre for a New Audience, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Frank Langella at BAM, and Kevin Kline and Sam Waterston at the Public. And now Rochester native John Lithgow, at the age of sixty-eight, has taken on the role of the king and father descending into madness. First performed at Shakespeare in the Park in the Delacorte’s inaugural season, 1962, with Frank Silvera and last seen there in 1973 with James Earl Jones, this latest Public Theater presentation of King Lear features two-time Tony winner Lithgow (The Changing Room, Sweet Smell of Success) as an emotional Lear as he deals with the betrayal of his two conniving older daughters, Goneril (Annette Bening) and Regan (Jessica Hecht), after casting aside his beloved youngest, Cordelia (Jessica Collins). He also exiles his loyal friend, the Earl of Kent (Jay O. Sanders), who reappears in disguise as Caius to protect his lord, the fading king. Meanwhile, the Earl of Gloucester (Clarke Peters) is misled by his bastard son, Edmund (Eric Sheffer Stevens), into believing his first-born, Edgar (Chukwudi Iwuji), is plotting patricide.

The Fool (Steven Boyer), Caius (Jay O. Sanders), and Lear (John Lithgow) are surprised by Poor Tom (Chukwudi Iwuji) in Public Theater presentation in the park (photo by Joan Marcus)

One of the most fascinating things about King Lear is how adaptable it is, that even when the same dialogue is being used, focus can shift dramatically from one character to another in different productions. In this case, veteran Shakespeare in the Park director Daniel Sullivan (The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice) highlights Goneril and Regan, but Bening, in her return to the New York stage for the first time in a quarter-century, is too stolid as the former, and Hecht (The Assembled Parties, A View from the Bridge) adds too much ironic humor as the latter. Jeremy Bobb’s laconic Oswald is stronger than Stevens’s fanciful Edmund, which is usually the other way around, while Iwuji transforms from carefree Edgar to the pathetic Poor Tom very well. Lithgow is a sad, heart-rending Lear, but Sullivan too often leaves him virtually alone on John Lee Beatty’s set, a large wooden platform backed with a tall screen covered with metallic rods that are like sharp sticks; Lear loses his grandeur too quickly, his minions peeling away as his mind goes. Shakespeare in the Park mainstay Sanders nearly steals the show as Kent/Caius, the only one who truly stands by his king. Steven Boyer is a fine Fool, but there’s not enough of him. The blinding scene is disappointingly tame, but Tal Yarden’s video projections enhance the storm, there’s an exciting sword fight near the end that draws gasps, and percussion played by two men on either side of the stage intensifies the overall ominous mood, resulting in a worthwhile, if not stellar, version of an oft-seen play that, amazingly, rarely bores even after repeated viewings. However, just when it seemed safe to put Lear to bed for at least a little while, it’s been announced that English actor Joseph Marcell will be starring in a production at the NYU Skirball Center this fall by Shakespeare’s Globe, the company that just performed Twelfth Night and Richard III on Broadway to such great acclaim. Fut! indeed. . . .

(In addition to waiting on line at the Delacorte, the Queens Museum, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Lehman College, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and the Public Theater to get free tickets, you can also enter the daily virtual ticketing lottery online here.)

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

Cleopatra (Joaquina Kalukango) and Mark Antony (Jonathan Cake) seek love in war-torn Saint Domingue in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Shakespeare adaptation at the Public (photo by Joan Marcus)

Anspacher Theater at the Public Theater
425 Lafayette St. below Astor Pl.
Through March 23, $40-$80
212-967-7555
www.publictheater.org

There’s a brief synopsis in the program of the Public Theater’s new presentation of Antony and Cleopatra, but that won’t help you make sense of this ill-conceived production. A collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Ohio State University and Miami’s GableStage, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s adaptation moves the tale of romance and power to eighteenth-century Saint Domingue, the Caribbean colony that would soon become Haiti, although you wouldn’t know it from Tom Piper’s set, mostly a bare stage with a series of Roman columns that block at least part of the action from nearly everyone in the audience. At the back of the stage, a small pool reflects light onto a sky-blue wall, while above a four-piece band contributes Haitian music. Jonathan Cake (Medea, Cymbeline) as Mark Antony and Joaquina Kalukango (Hurt Village, Godspell) as Cleopatra lack any chemistry as he attempts to maintain his alliance with Octavius Caesar (Samuel Collings adding Napoleonic touches) by marrying Caesar’s sister, Octavia (Charise Castro-Smith), which angers Cleopatra, her maidservants, Iras (Castro-Smith) and Charmian (Sarah Niles), and her eunuch soothsayer (Chivas Michael). But when Antony returns to Cleopatra, trying to have it both ways, yet more battles await, both personal and political. Public Theater artist in residence McCraney (The Brother/Sister Plays), who is credited as director and editor, drains the story of any passion, moving along the plot in a tedious, procedural manner, with Chukwudi Iwuji, the standout performer in the show, playing the narrator as well as Enobarbus. Bringing together a cast of actors from the United States and the U.K. portraying characters from Rome and the French Caribbean leads to further confusion as different accents fly off in all directions, leaving the audience to wonder just what it’s all about.