University of Virginia Library

'Hamlet' Here Tuesday

An incalculably neurotic, yet
likeable Hamlet matched by a mad,
even sluttish Ophelia should bring
more than a few surprises when
Jonathan Miller's production by the
Oxford and Cambridge Shakespeare
Company is performed here next
Tuesday night.

This will mark the troupe's first
appearance in Charlottesville since
their critically acclaimed
production of "Twelfth Night;"
also directed by Mr. Miller, played
here last January. Cast in the title
role is Hugh Thomas, who was
much praised for his interpretation
of Malvolio in last year's "Twelfth
Night." Both he and Mr. Miller have
garnered wide acclaim for their
treatment of Shakespeare's most
famous tragedy.

"The interpretation is
Freudian the action largely
internalised and played out in the
intensity of interrelated
psychodramas. The Oedipal theme
is followed throughout..." wrote
Margot Waddell in the Cambridge
Review.

She added that Mr. Miller's
"Hamlet" is an attempt to untangle
and demystify the play to make it
psychologically coherent for
modern audiences.

"The interpretation fully
expresses and comprehends the
chaos and dislocation when
primitive impulse and order are
subjected to a demythologized and
politik world. The play is not
merely ideas incarnate it is alive
and compelling." Miss Waddell
concludes.

"The world seems to Hamlet
like a foul and pestilent
congregation of vapors," wrote J.C.
Trewin in the Illustrated London
News some weeks ago. He said that
Mr. Thomas's performance is
"acutely intelligent, at the center of
what seems, alas, to be Mr. Miller's
last Shakespeare production for
some time."

"This new look at Elsinore
features an Ophelia (Claire Howard)
who, sulky and self-willed, loses her
reason, not as a decorative
show-piece but with an agonizing
truth," Mr. Trewin continued.

"Such productions as this, fresh,
swift, contentious but never
exhibitionist, makes one hope that
Mr. Miller will soon come again to
the Shakespearean stage," he
concluded.

The performance in Old Cabell
Hall Auditorium is sponsored by
the University Union and begins at
8:30 p.m. Tickets are $3.00 for
students of the University and
$3.50 for others, and may be
purchased at the Main Desk on the
third floor of Newcomb Hall,
Mincer's Pipe Shop, or at the door.