Hamlet in Bed

Hamlet in Bed

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

September 14, 2015

Photo courtesy of
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

In the past few years I have seen a handful of shows at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.  Their space on 224 Waverly Place in the West Village is small and rustic, yet spacious and well maintained.  The work they do is consistently edgy and well developed.  Hamlet in Bed, a new play by Michael Laurence, surpasses the standard with a robust style and unique voice.  It is funny, haunting, and psychologically complex.

Michael (intensely portrayed by playwright Michael Laurence) is a Hamlet-struck actor.  Raised by adopted parents, he is plagued with inner conflict, mostly due to his abandonment issues.  In his quest for all things Hamlet, he comes across a journal written thirty-nine years ago by an actress who once played Ophelia.  Her writings reveal that she had an affair with the actor who played Hamlet opposite her, got pregnant, and gave up the child for adoption.  Yes, the date of birth written in the journal is the same as Michael’s.  He tracks her down and casts her as Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother) in his own version of Hamlet.  He is in constant indecision, as Hamlet is, as to whether or not to confront her with the truth.

Photo by Tristan Fuge
Courtesy of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

The script is skillfully structured and prolifically written.  It is mostly monologues delivered by the characters of Michael or his mother, Anna (brilliantly played by Annette O’Toole).  Since these monologues reveal the inner workings of the characters’ minds and the desires that drive them, they stylistically identify as Shakespearean soliloquies.  Director Lisa Peterson connects every word to action and builds the play to a strong high point.  The Hamlet-Gertrude scene, performed near the end of the play, is alive with tension and honesty.  It is driven by the desperate longings of Michael and Anna, channeled through the characters of Hamlet and Gertrude.

Annette O'Tolle in Hamlet in Bed
Photo by Tristan Fuge
Courtesy of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

I could not take my eyes off Annette O’Toole.  The playwright has given her a rich backstory that she fully embodies with physical quirks and emotional depth.  It combines Ophelia’s madness and Gertrude’s denial.  Ms. O’Toole seamlessly transitions from Anna, a sixty year old cat lady who once played Shakespeare on Broadway, to the character of Gertrude, the noble Queen of Denmark.  Neither character can embrace her son, and the expansiveness of her despair in both roles is clear, sincere, and implicit.

The play opens with an extensive monologue from the character of Michael.  We follow his story for ninety minutes.  It has a powerful ending with the character of Anna alone on stage.  This choice begs the question: Whose story is this, Michael’s or Anna’s?  The answer for me: The script is so well balanced with both characters’ points of view that you truly identify with their indecision, and therefore fully comprehend why Hamlet is such a complex character and brilliant classic.  

Michael Laurence in Hamlet in Bed
Photo by Tristan Fuge
Courtesy of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Michael Laurence has written a play that explores classic themes and Oedipal nightmares, and makes them relevant and realistic.   He has a strong and powerful voice.  Submerge yourself in Hamlet in Bed.  It plays at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater through October 25. 

Domenick Danza