By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Don't expect Hamlet to give a serious delivery of the famous ``To be or not to be, that is the question.'' Instead, there is a young Hamlet wearing black leather pants and jacket, shouting like a rock star.
The musical, ``Hamlet'' offers a bold approach to shed new light on ``Hamlet,'' one of William Shakespeare's classic tragedies. It first premiered in Prague, the Czech Republic in 1999 and has been staged over 600 times and seen by around 10 million people. The musical is now having its first Korean production on the stage of the Universal Arts Center in Seoul.
The all-time classic by Shakespeare is based on a Danish legend revolving around the question over why Prince Hamlet, the main character, waited so long to exact revenge on Claudius, his stepfather, for his father's death.
But the musical has changed some scenes to put lighter moments in the story line closer to the original Shakespearian version under the rock musical score.
The young Hamlet, played by rising musical star Kim Soo-yong, walks onstage looking brooding and petulant, lamenting his father's murder.
Hamlet is depicted as a vulnerable character burning with anger having seen his Uncle Claudius usurp the throne.
The songs, written by Czech singer-composer Janek Ledecky, are performed by Kim, under a darker and menacing atmosphere with a heavy rock music accompaniment. Meanwhile, the perfidious, bureaucratic Polonius, is portrayed in a much lighter vein.
Amid the dark, dramatic scenes, there are several humorous moments, one of which is a jazzy number featuring Hamlet, Horatio and the grave-digger holding up skulls and clicking their teeth in unison, which seemed a bit awkward in the flow of the story.
Hamlet's madness was mixed with a few humorous touches. The chorus breaks into a musical song that features the lyrics, ``He's crazy/He's a nut,'' with the actors tapping their heads to show that Hamlet is insane.
The musical version shows Hamlet as young and ``modern,'' by adopting loud rock music and putting more emphasis on his desire and dissipation to portray him as a furious individual. The turntable stage sets are impressively used in scene changes.
However, the musical is overshadowed by the lack of singing talent of the actors and actresses, who are supposed to outdo the rock arrangements. As a result, most of the lyrics were lost in the mix and sounded unclear to the audience.
Kim's performance was generally good but singer-turned-actress Shin Hyo-bum who took the role of Gertrude, the mother of Hamlet, performed indifferently singing some songs without expressing any feeling.
The first act was loose and developed in a somewhat boring fashion despite the dynamic rock music. In the second act, the climax of the musical came but the crucial moment in which characters were killed was portrayed matter of factly, instead of giving any significance to each of the characters.
Two other actors Shin Sung-rok and Sung Du-sop, alternate the title role of Hamlet.
The musical will be staged until Nov. 11. Tickets cost from 40,000 to 100,000 won.