Bard and Bourbon’s Taut, Sinewy ‘Hamlet’

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Photo via Facebook / Sunstone Studios

Hamlet (Drunk)

Bard and Bourbon return with a cunningly-framed staging of a classic. Directed by Katie Merriman, Hamlet (Drunk) is a breathtakingly taut evening’s Shakespeare featuring the sharply youthful energy of Brittany F. Byrnes as the tragic Prince of Denmark. Byrnes’ sleek precision in the role cascades gracefully from amusement to aggression in a lean, sinewy charisma. Merriman conducts a refreshing take on the tale of a descent into murder and madness with a nearly all-woman cast. Reva Fox commands deft comedy in a warmly sympathetic presence as Polonius. Anya Palmer conjures an appealingly magnificent and resonant serenity as Hamlet’s love Ophelia. Grace DeWolff wields a slicingly cool aggression at drama’s end as Hamlet’s rival Laertes. Tawnie Thompson is admirably poised both emotionally and intellectually in the role Hamlet’s mother. A.J. Magoon manages a concise inner complexity as both her husband Claudius and the ghost of Hamlet’s father.

Much like the production of Macbeth that graced the stage of Sunstone Studios months ago, Hamlet (Drunk) has much to contend with in the way of intimacy. There’s very little space between actors and audience. Byrnes and company negotiate the small space with impressive concision. Kirt Merriman punctuates a largely empty stage with little set pieces that lend the space a bit of depth. Lighting Designer Colin Gawronski adds texture to that depth. B&B’s tradition of slowly introducing multiple shots of liquor into a single actor over the course of a performance continues to provide an added layer of empathy for the ensemble that served the show quite well on a Friday night with a progressively more and more inebriated Byrnes as Hamlet.

Bard and Bourbon’s Hamlet (Drunk) runs through June 4 at Sunstone Studios, 127 E. Wells Street. For tickets, visit sunstonestudiosmke.com.