the play's the thing in which the review is based

This past Sunday I went to the UCSB's theatre department's rendition of Hamlet which was directed by Irwin Appel and Starring Merlin(blahdyblah) as Hamlet While I have read Hamlet five times and seen around the same amount of film interpretations of it I have never seen a live performance and while it was obviously amateur, but it was still well don't and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

I thought Hamlet (Merlin bladyblah) did a very good job at conveying just the right balance of intrigue, madness with comedy, heart wrenching pain and somber intellect. I was also fond of Laretes performance which begins as humorous yet intelligent and honorable, and returns to the following the death of his family scenes' with a quest that seemed of justice more than revenge and in search of the truths that not even the audience or necessarily the characters themselves know, the "who's", "why's" and "if's" of the situation. (The Actor)'s Larete's is passionate and quick tempered but loving and loyal to the truth. (blah) as Ophelia does a fine job but I feel she didn't convey strongly enough that her affections for Hamlet were deep, she was a little too compliant for my liking although she stepped up her game in her scene of madness (although I feel it was at times a little too reminiscent of Kate Winslet's Ophelia in Branagh's Film adaptation). A few performances that, in my opinion, didn't quite come across as they should were Polonius, who I thought acted the roll too likable, in a way that didn't give enough light to the fact that he is extremely conniving and impervious to others' feelings, also Claudius and Gertrude disappointed for opposite reasons, I found Claudius to be a little like a pussy, like ooo I'm afraid of scary Hamlet and ooo I have so much remorse. Gertrude on the other hand was too callous, she never really conveyed the amount she actually loved Hamlet (and Hammy Sr.) I found it refreshing to see the roles of Horatio and Guildenstern portrayed as females and I thought it worked.

The set and props were about as minimalist as you can get with the stage and auditorium's aisle being the main source of movement in time and actions. With a transparent screen used as separation between rooms. The most interesting piece of set equipment was a "ladder" that I’ve only ever seen back stage, which made the final death scene and the dance of the players within the play very dramatic. Speaking of, the play with in the play was a very modern and well-done part in which black clothed individuals with gold masks sang and did a modern choreographed dance that was very eye-catching.

Costumes were done fairly well though some outfits did not belong to the same era in fashion but for the most part they we're late 19th century gothic inspired (cough, like Branch, which I don't mind I mean I think it's the perfect time for this play to be based, its definitely got gothic written all over it). One aspect I found peculiar was the music, which was an original score to the production but was really inconsistent and odd. All and all though the play was very well done, though I do feel like some of the character depth was lost because the actors didn't want to or just didn't commit themselves to the unappealing aspects of some of their characters.