Synetic's 'Hamlet': The Rest Is Silence
By William Triplett
Special to The Washington Post

Monday, April 8, 2002; Page C01

In one of the first scenes in Synetic Theater's production of "Hamlet," which just opened at Church Street Theater, Claudius and Gertrude dance together like tangoing spiders. The ghost of Hamlet's murdered father has yet to appear, but it's clear from the start that something is skin-crawlingly wrong in the state of Denmark. And things are about to get much worse, in the most astonishing ways.


Shakespeare's longest play -- more than four hours when staged entirely -- has been cut to a sinewy 90 minutes. There's no intermission -- and no dialogue.

Synetic's production of the greatest verse tragedy in Western literature utters not a single word -- not even in explanatory titles -- but like a beautifully choreographed nightmare, it fuses movement, music and light into a haunting series of images that summon the very heartbeat of the story.

While the show registers in the conscious mind, you'll feel it working its dark magic somewhere much deeper. Call it a fugue-poem for the limbic system, and it's easily the most daring and innovative piece of theater seen on a Washington stage in a long time.

An offshoot of Stanislavsky Theater Studio, Synetic Theater is led by the husband-wife team of Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili -- an uncanny pantomime artist and a gifted choreographer, respectively, who were the highlights of every STS production. Like STS, Synetic is committed to drawing on multiple artistic disciplines that, when properly synthesized, create a theatrical whole greater than the sum of its parts. With its debut production, Synetic has achieved) that and more.

Rarely do you see so many elements integrated so impressively. Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili's perfectly simple set -- a bare stage carpeted and masked in black with a torn mauve backdrop -- suggests a netherworld of the imagination. Various locations are evoked with a minimum of props, mostly by what first appear to be sections of ladders. These later double as mirrors, doors, gurneys, the prow of a ship, even a guillotine. Colin K. Bills's lighting, ranging from the warm and soft to the violently moody, underscores the emotional tone of every scene, as does the riveting music -- selected works of the Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, who uses everything from a lone violin to industrial synthesizers to play unnatural melodies.

At the center is highly stylized action that defines every relationship with wrenching specificity. For instance, Hamlet and Ophelia (the two Tsikurishvilis) can never connect: They can look longingly at each other, even bring their fingertips to within a hair's breadth of each other, but never touch. Claudius (Irakli Kavsadze) and Gertrude (Catherine Gasta) are happiest, most full of life, when doing their creepy, expressionistic dance, oblivious of everything around them.

While it clearly helps to know the plot of the play, it's not necessary in order to follow what's happening. Every scene is distilled to its emotional essence, which the Tsikurishvilis (he directed, she choreographed) conjure through almost archetypal imagery.

The "To be or not to be" soliloquy, for example, lacks the power of its language, but as Tsikurishvili careers across the stage, torn between the different courses of action he plays out, you feel Hamlet's desperation.
Later, when Hamlet finally confronts his mother, the atmosphere of blood lust as well as taboo lust is overpowering. The production strips the play to its most basic, even primal, aspect: A fundamentally decent young man must -- on the word of a ghost -- commit a coldblooded murder because it is his duty as a son.
All of his attendant anxieties, confusions and fears (Freudian and otherwise) are played out with a chilling, childlike simplicity.

The supporting ensemble is uniformly wonderful, from Kavsadze's corrupt, glowering Claudius to Greg Marzullo's impetuous, impassioned Laertes to Jonathan Leveck's stolid, dissembling Polonius. All have been costumed to good effect in plain, dark clothes with the occasional splash of color (courtesy of Alexi-Meskhishvili).

Ultimately, this is not "Hamlet" as most of us have probably ever seen it. Rather, it's a shadow of the play. But just as shadows are perfect outlines of their objects, this is "Hamlet" as we know it -- in our bones.
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili. Choreography by Irina Tsikurishvili. With Erik Moellering, Irina Koval, Nathan Weinberger, Rachel Jett and John Milosich. Through May 26 at the Church Street Theater. Call 202-265-3748.