Hamlet: Opening Night
In less than two hours, my production of Hamlet will open at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. This project has been an exquisite joy and a great, if confounding satisfaction. It’s been a privilege to work with this group of people, many of whom I’ve worked with for several years, and a few of whom I met within the last few months.
Opening nights can be melancholic experiences for directors, and this one is particularly so for me. For the last 6 weeks I’ve been saying ‘I wish I had two more weeks.’ But I didn’t really want that two weeks as extra rehearsal time. I wanted more time so I could stay in the middle of the play, and try to understand and uncork its mad brilliance which has continued to confound people for nearly 400 years.
Now, I’m putting the custodianship of the project in the able hands of the actors, stage managers and technical team, a very capable group. I’m stepping out of the inventive sphere and into the sphere of observation, removed a little from the heady exhilaration. This is a necessary step, but a painful one because of how attached I feel to this production, and because of how proud I am of it.
I have heard it said that Hamlet changes you. I can say very affirmatively that that is true for me. However, I don’t think I will be able to assess or understand exactly how it has changed me for a long time, if ever. I can only say that, having worked on Hamlet for the last six or so months, it is a play unlike any other. And its demands are easily matched by its rewards.
