Utah festival’s touring ‘Hamlet’ emphasizes the play’s storytelling aspects

Hold the mirror up to nature.

That's how William Shakespeare's Hamlet, prince of Denmark, instructs a troupe of players he hopes will help him avenge his father's murder.

But don't be surprised if the Utah Shakespeare Festival's touring production of "Hamlet" — visiting Southern Nevada twice in the next few weeks — conjures a few unusual reflections.

For one thing, Hamlet may be a prince — but he's played by Allie Babich, who charmed USF audiences last summer as "South Pacific's" resident cockeyed optimist, Ensign Nellie Forbush.

For another, some of the characters will look eerily familiar. For example, Hamlet's mother Gertrude bears an uncanny resemblance to the ghost of her first husband, Hamlet's murdered father, as well as the gravedigger who helped bury Hamlet's father.

That's because Kelly Rogers plays all three roles; last year, USF audiences saw her as "King Lear's" daughter Cordelia and alongside Babich in "Charley's Aunt."

Overall, this Shakespeare in the Schools "Hamlet" divides 20 characters among seven actors, Babich notes in a telephone interview from the tour.

"We're all wearing — literally — a lot of hats," she says, noting the various costume pieces (including shawls, vests and masks) that delineate the characters.

"We're not trying to disguise the fact" of the production's flexible casting, she adds, citing director Frank Honts' belief that "anyone can tell any story."

That philosophy permeates USF's 14-week "Hamlet" tour, which will play to more than 25,000 students in five Western states before it ends in April.

In addition to Saturday afternoon's free public performance at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, "Hamlet" plays to local students through Tuesday in venues ranging from the Adelson Educational Campus to Indian Springs High School.

Next week, the USF tour departs Southern Nevada for Utah and Arizona, returning Feb. 8 for a two-week run at the College of Southern Nevada's Cheyenne campus. (Public performances at CSN's Nicholas J. Horn Theatre will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 and 2 p.m. Feb. 13.)

In directing this "Hamlet" tour, Honts focuses on "the ways in which the players can bring new light to this story" — and its telling.

The director takes his cue from (spoiler alert for a play that's four centuries old!) Hamlet's parting words to his friend Horatio: "If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart … draw thy breath in pain to tell my story."

Initially, Honts "thought, 'Who would tell this story?' "

His answer: The same players Hamlet recruits to help him expose the truth behind his father's murder and his mother's remarriage — to Claudius, the uncle now occupying his father's throne (and bed).

"Horatio and the players are sharing the truth of what Hamlet did," Babich says, "and why he did it."

Overall, "it makes for a pretty good through line," the director comments in a telephone interview from his Chicago home. "There's an urgency from their relationship with Hamlet."

It also "strips away the preciousness of theater," he adds. "Anyone can do it. There is a universality to storytelling. All you need is a story and some people who are willing to tell it."

That's not all this "Hamlet" strips away, however.

Clocking in at "just a shade over 80 minutes," this version "cut a 33,000-word play down to 12,000 words," Honts explains. "It's a fraction of the original 'Hamlet.' "

Yet "there's a certain amount of 'Hamlet' you want to preserve," he acknowledges, in part because "the poetry is so beautiful."

Helping contemporary audiences — especially student audiences — appreciate Shakespeare's poetry remains a priority, Babich points out.

"Young people think Shakespeare can be boring because it's not fast enough," she says.

In this touring production, however, "we're speaking at the speed of thought," Babich comments. "We only have exciting scenes."

Even so, "Hamlet still has to go through all the hesitations and worries and roadblocks that keep" the character from taking action, she says. "I just have to do it faster."

Honts cast Babich as Hamlet, in part, because "her work with Shakespeare's text was exceptional," he comments, citing her onstage "clarity, specificity and charisma."

He also wanted someone capable of "exploring Hamlet's youthfulness — someone who could explore the angst and yo-yo of feelings and emotions" the prince experiences during the course of the play.

After all, Honts points out, "Hamlet is a universal character and experiences deep, deep, universal emotions."

Some of the same emotions young people in 21st-century America are experiencing, he adds.

"Hamlet's" universality comes through for tour audiences, rural and urban — whether they're students, inmates at correctional facilities or all-ages public audiences, Honts notes.

"It's fun to see how different audiences have reacted," he comments. "The play seems to resonate with every group."

— Read more from Carol Cling at reviewjournal.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.