A LITTLE TOO MUCH HAM IN SOUTH COAST'S 'HAMLET'.

Byline: Jim Farber

Staff Writer

There are moments in South Coast Repertory's new production of "Hamlet" when Hamish Linklater captures the gravity, wit, fire and soul-searching frustration of Shakespeare's moody Dane.

Unfortunately, there are as many other moments when the dashingly handsome actor, no stranger to television sitcom acting, comes across more as the quirky, wisecracking "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" than the profoundly poetic prince of Denmark.

This "Hamlet" arrives in Costa Mesa with a reasonably impressive pedigree of talent, led by director Daniel Sullivan. But in the end, Sullivan's inability to forge a cohesive sense of dramatic purpose, combined with a cast that suffers from a lack of verisimilitude and vocal luster, causes this "Hamlet" to flounder and fail.

Hamlet rightly urges the players to deliver their lines "trippingly on the tongue." But in this production, that advice is taken all too literally, as speeches zip by in a monotone blur. The essential information is there. But the gravity of its meaning and the glorious poetry of its expression are sorely missing.

The visual approach is relatively straightforward in terms of the historical setting; this is not Prince, formerly known as Hamlet. Even so, the time is somewhat out of joint because Ilona Somogyi's courtly costumes look like a summer-stock grab bag. The set design by Ralph Funicello is more impressive, meant to evoke a state of mental and societal chaos by placing the action against a collage of hellish scenes by Hieronymus Bosch.

In his landmark television commentary, "Civilization," Sir Kenneth Clark described Hamlet as a man torn between two worlds: the intellectually probing realm of the Renaissance and the dogmatic dungeon of the Middle Ages. Hamlet's ironic flaw is that he is obsessed by the process of reasoning. He ponders every action and reaction to excess, and thus dulls the blade of action.

It's difficult to get a handle on exactly what drives Linklater's Hamlet.

Clearly he's upset about the death of his father, detests his uncle, King Claudius (played with slovenly nonchalance by Robert Foxworth), resents his mother, Gertrude (Linda Gehringer), and laments his treatment of the fair Ophelia (a breath of fresh air played with real zest and passion by Brooke Bloom). He also clearly hates being trapped in the backwater society of Elsinore Castle.

A pondering intellectual, however, he is not. His greatest pleasure comes from appearing the poster boy for bipolarity as he ping-pongs between melancholy brooding and the antic disposition of a madman.

Tragically, the lowest moment of Linklater's performance comes at the most important, pivotal moment in the play, when Hamlet contemplates the ramifications of whether "to be, or not to be." This speech, which has tested the greatest actors since the days of the Globe Theatre, Linklater dispatches as if it were a hackneyed clich(hrt) to be gotten through as quickly and with as little introspection as possible.

Linklater does not get a great deal of support, conceptually or dramatically, from his director or his fellow actors.

And with the exception of Bloom's tempest-tossed Ophelia -- who really does suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune -- the other performances are basically one-note affairs, whether it's Foxworth's motley monarch, Dakin Matthews' blowhard Polonius, Gehringer's over-wrought Gertrude or "Ugly Betty's" Michael Urie as a nondescript Horatio.

Jim Farber, [phone], Ext. 416

[e-mail]

HAMLET - Two stars

Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through July 1.

Tickets: $20-$60. [phone] or www.scr.org.

In a nutshell: Sitcom acting gets in the way of Shakespeare's poetry.

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Actor Hamish Linklater's Hamlet in the South Coast Repertory production plays the prince of Denmark as a poster boy for bipolarity.