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Theater, I Hate Hamlet
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One of the Ancon Theatre Guild's better shows

by Eric Jackson

I Hate Hamlet

written by Paul Rudnick

directed by Jeanne Marie Leggiere

produced by Ron Leggiere and the Theatre Guild of Ancon Board of Governors

with Amit Nathani, Lily Daksovek, María Theoksito, Nancy Niemi, Alec Sherman and Ron Leggiere

technical director Pedro Caicedo

stage manager Bernardo Augusto Ordas

sound Michael Henriquez

lighting Pedro Caicedo

costumes Lily Daksovek and Peggy Ann Monzon

set Ron Leggiere, Rogelio Sanchez and Jean Marie Leggiere

I have been going to all the Theatre Guild shows for at least a decade now, and I know all about opening night stumbles. I usually don't go on opening nights, but this time the schedule compelled it, and there were the usual stumbles, about which the cast was very concerned afterwards.

That was a sign of how seriously they take their art, not the quality of the play. Imperfect as it may have been on opening night, this is the best Theatre Guild show in a long time. The only other one with such good acting from the entire cast that comes to mind was My Left Breast, and that's an unfair comparison because it was a one-woman show versus a cast of six.

Amit Nathani is talented, regulars at the Guild in the past couple of years will know. Here he plays Andrew Rally, a TV actor gone to New York with a foxy and flaky girlfriend (María Theoksito) to get serious about his craft after his show has been canceled, who takes on an outdoor performance of Hamlet, whose dizzy real estate broker (Lily Daksovek) gets him John Barrymore's (Alec Sherman's) old apartment. While the degenerate lush ghost of Barrymore tries to turn Rally into a Shakespearian actor, the New York agent (Nancy Niemi) is out for one more fling with Barrymore and the LA agent (Ron Leggiere) is trying to lure Rally back to Hollywood for some highly paid drek.

It's mostly comedy acting, with the occasional snippet of Shakespeare thrown in. Nathani and Sherman are the central characters and they're great, and well supported by everyone else.

This is Jeanne Marie Leggiere's debut as a director, although far from that as a member of the Guild's usual gang of suspects.

There are still more shows to come here, on April 26, 27 and 28. If you are in the country you really should catch this show, and not just for the noble cause of supporting Panama's English-language community theater.

Theater, I Hate Hamlet
Books, Huellas Chinas en Panamá

Books, While Europe Slept