Shakespeare Coeur d’Alene showcases brutality of ‘Hamlet,’ plus entertaining sword fighting and petty drama

Shakespeare Coeur d’Alene Artistic/Educational Director Mary T. Bowers’ work has revolved around William Shakespeare and his plays for most of her life, and she’s got “Hamlet” to blame.

Bowers believes “Hamlet” was the first Shakespeare play she ever read. In eighth grade, while most of the class read “Romeo and Juliet,” a select few students, including Bowers, were allowed to read “Hamlet” instead.

She got the gist of the play, that Hamlet feels betrayed by his uncle and seeks revenge, but the psychological elements and emotional component of the show eluded her at the time. Still, she said, it did not turn her away from the Bard.

One play led to another, which led to seeing as many live productions as she could. Bowers would go on to earn her master’s in Shakespeare Studies from the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute.

That work brought her back to “Hamlet” time and time again.

“I’ve seen it, and I’ve read it more times than I can even count,” she said. “It is the tragedy I’m most familiar with and yet it’s still an elusive play in so many ways.”

So what’s one more opportunity to dig into the play? Bowers directs Shakespeare Coeur d’Alene’s production of “Hamlet,” which opens Friday and runs through Oct. 26 at the Salvation Army Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene.

The play opens as Prince Hamlet (Ben Schulzke) of Denmark is grieving the death of his father King Hamlet and upset that his uncle, King Claudius (Jak Oritt), has married his mother, Queen Gertrude (Deborah Marlowe), so soon after his father’s passing.

Denmark, now under the rule of King Claudius, is worried about an invasion from neighboring Norway led by Prince Fortinbras (Joey Kunzler, who also plays Francisco), son of the king who was killed by King Hamlet.

One evening, at Elsinore, home to King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, two soldiers, Barnardo (Jeffrey St. George, who also plays Guildenstern) and Marcellus (Roger Huntman, who also plays Lucianus), see a ghost (Jim Davis) they think looks just like King Hamlet.

The duo call Hamlet’s friend Horatio (Seth Weddle) over to witness the ghost himself, and the men decide to tell Prince Hamlet what they have seen.

The next day, the king and queen meet with their advisor Polonius (Matt Rakes). Claudius allows Polonius’s son Laertes (Nick Kittilstved) to return to school in France but questions why Hamlet is still grieving the death of his father, forbidding him to return to school.

An upset Hamlet then learns of the ghost from Horatio and wants to see it for himself. Meanwhile, Polonius is helping Laertes prepare for his trip back to France. His daughter Ophelia (Lucy Simpson) admits she is interested in Hamlet, but Laertes and Polonius caution her to reject his advances.

That evening, Hamlet sees the ghost of his father, who reveals that Claudius poisoned him. The ghost then asks Hamlet to avenge his murder. Hamlet agrees and begins to formulate a plan.

The cast also features Shelby Marcott, Anne Labella, Naomi Babine, Amanda Moore, Amelia Polocz, Jeff Spicer, Sarah Vazquez and Maria Stromberg.

For all her previous work on the show, Bowers was not sure about producing “Hamlet” this season. She knew she needed a tragedy in Shakespeare Coeur d’Alene’s season, but she was initially intimidated by how iconic the show is and its length, which stretches to five acts.

But there were various reasons not to produce one of Shakespeare’s other tragedies, so “Hamlet” it was.

Bowers set to work editing the play for length. She started by noting scenes she knew she had to keep, which included a few that typically get cut. Many productions of “Hamlet,” Bowers said, cut a scene between court spy Reynaldo and Polonius, but Bowers thinks the scene informs the character of Polonius.

“Polonius is not just some chatty, humorous old man,” she said. “He’s a spy master and he’s dangerous.”

Sometimes Fortinbras, the prince of Norway, is left out, but, as a former professor of Bowers said, “Without Fortinbras, ‘Hamlet’ is a really messy domestic squabble.” When you add Fortinbras, it leads to (spoiler alert) the downfall of the Danish royal family and the invasion of Poland.

After combing through the play word by word six to eight times, Bowers turned her focus to the look of the show. She did not have as specific of a vision as she typically does, but she knew she wanted it to feel modern, as she believes “Hamlet” is the most modern of Shakespeare’s plays.

“It really is exploring psychological depths,” she said. “It is a play that deals as much with the inner man as the outer man and that’s unique. It’s very bleak.”

We may not all have been visited by the ghost of a deceased parent, but we all know what it feels like to have lost someone we loved or to feel like we were betrayed. Hamlet is experiencing all of that at the same time.

Still, he is not to be seen as the hero, something he himself says, and proves, time and time again, especially to people who don’t deserve his vicious cruelty. Ophelia, for one, has the least power of anyone in the play, Bowers said. She is ignored by her father, abandoned by her brother, who is returning to school, and forced to ignore the man she loves.

“Hamlet’s reaction is ‘I’m going to hurt her right back,’ ” Bowers said. “It’s brutal and really, really cruel.”

But under all the cruelty of “Hamlet,” there is also a lot of exciting sword fighting and “Real Housewives” levels of drama amongst the royal family. Bowers said she and the cast and crew haven’t forgotten that Shakespeare’s works are, at the end of the day, entertaining.

“It’s entertainment for the heart, for the spirit and for the mind,” she said. “It really is entertainment, and we never lose sight of that.”