The Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre debuted its production of “I Hate Hamlet” on Friday.
The tagline for the show was “Sword fights, Ghosts and Comedy – what’s there to hate?” As the night progressed, it wasn’t hard to find faults.
The show was set beautifully at The Stage at Island Park, which promotes a partial theater in the round, meaning that the audience can see the production from three different angles.
The entire set, from the chairs to the backdrop was masterfully crafted. The set was an antique style apartment from the early 1900’s, being lived in during modern times. Immediately the audience was immersed in the scene.
The cast was small, only having six members to carry the entire performance. The actors did their best to put on a great opening show, but sometimes it appeared that they tried too hard to get a laugh. Sometimes the performers seemed to overact, which occasionally worked perfectly because many of the characters were larger than life. However, the overacting got old quickly when it was done for every line.
Despite the fact that the stage was gorgeous and the cast was doing their best, the plot was the downfall for this. The play followed a washed-up television actor who moves into John Barrymore’s (a famous actor from the 1920s) old apartment in Los Angeles.
This washed-up actor gets offered the opportunity to play Hamlet in a park production, but he is hesitant because he hates Hamlet.
His girlfriend, his agent and the ghost of John Barrymore all encourage him to take the roll while helping him prepare. However, a Hollywood director/producer wants him to star in a money-making new TV show.
The premise as a whole is weak and the characters have little room to develop throughout the two-hour run time. Furthermore, several of the jokes were hilarious for a certain acquired sense of humor. College students will find places to chuckle, but those times are few and far between.
The Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre’s production of “I Hate Hamlet” was a great attempt to work with something that needs a lot of fixing. Those who are middle-aged or older should enjoy much of the humor, but college students may need to turn on their active listening to fully enjoy the show.