‘Hate’ brings love to the fore

It’s an incredible feeling when an audience and the actors onstage make a connection during a live theater production. Considering that symbiosis is one of the themes at work in Paul Rudnick’s, “I Hate Hamlet,” the cast at last Thursday’s Murphys Creek Theatre performance was cooking with super glue.

This is a tremendously well-written play, tracking a very popular young television actor who has just left a hit series to expand his performance horizons. He decides to play the great Dane at New York City’s Shakespeare in the Park, but he’s not too sure he’s the man for the role and a cast of friends works with the uneasy Hollywood “twenty-something” to prepare him for what’s regarded as the end all, be all of male parts in the theater.

Murphys Creek’s “Twelfth Night” set is cleverly redecorated as the former apartment of oft-hailed Hamlet, John Barrymore, and that’s where all of our action takes place. (“Hamlet” runs in rotating repertory with “Night” through Aug. 5.) As the lights come up, Misty Day bustles into the rental as real estate broker, Felicia Dantine. Day immediately establishes Dantine as the quintessential – albeit a tad stereotypical – New Yorker, squawking her praises for the young actor and his choice of Gotham digs. She’s fascinated with the idea that Barrymore used to reside in the space where Andrew will live while he’s appearing in Central Park.

Kyle Gundlach, as the actor Andrew Rally, appears next. I thought it was interesting that the character really didn’t care that Barrymore once inhabited the apartment; it helped prove Andrew’s weak knees. His agent, Lillian Troy soon arrives and Sheila Doyle gives this woman a stern quality, but she really does seem to have her client’s best interests at heart. Doyle is also terrific at playing a smoker who’s been inhaling far too long.

Andrew’s girlfriend Dierdre, played with gravity defying aplomb by Tara Kayton (who “wows” the crowd in “Twelfth Night” too), shows up next, raving about the dramatic potential for the place. She’s also a big part of the reason Andrew auditioned for “Hamlet” in the first place – she won’t have sex with Andrew until she’s sure “…he’s the one.”

As the group discusses Andrew’s apparent apprehension, Dantine divulges her psychic abilities (much to Andrew’s chagrin and Dierdre’s delight). Soon, the foursome encircles a table and the boding broker goes into a trance. Day is hilarious in this scene, as is Doyle in her delivery of some choice lines.

Of course, nothing incredible happens exactly during the séance, but after the guests depart, Barrymore suddenly appears. Allen Pontes is just as suave as any swashbuckler in his lady-killing prime, eager for another drink while talking about the acting biz with Andrew. It’s immediately sensed that the duo will duel, then discuss and deride the Dane as the deceased prima donna deigns to drill the newbie. And when Barrymore begins an actual duel – with swords yanked from his own living room wall – the new kid on the block must step up to the plate. This scene is terrifically staged, with the actors clamoring over the entire set parrying and lunging to swashbuckling music as if we’re suddenly in a scene from “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

It’s also interesting to hear these characters talk about the acting process, from Andrew’s preposterous preparations prior to performing a scene, to Barrymore insisting that, “I do not overact; I simply possess the emotional power of 10 men,” Gundlach and Pontes share the stage very well.

More mayhem enters the apartment when Andrew’s director/producer friend from Hollywood, Gary Peter Lefkowitz, storms onto the scene. Josh Gren is pure façade-laced, indifference as he tries to talk Andrew out of his “Hamlet” job. Lefkowitz is the kind of Hollywood cliché who considers Shakespeare to be “algebra on stage,” and a guy who insists that, “You don’t do art, you buy it.” Gren is perfect in this portrayal.

The story might be a tad predictable, especially toward the close, but it’s in the little nuances created between all of the characters that this production shines brilliantly. Gundlach is at once the naïve nave venturing into the bard’s wordy wilderness, and then he’s a power to be reckoned with.

Day is an absolute delight. Kayton is a complete keeper, Pontes is the prince of pontification playing the “…actor, legend, seducer and corpse,” and Doyle doles out more laughs than nicotine has even induced. And yes, well, Gren is just great.

I fell in love with this zany cast of characters, and while there are a lot of shows out there thrilling crowds up and down the Mother Lode, this is the show to see. I love hating Hamlet.