Hamlet
Hamlet -- By William Shakespeare -- The Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park -- Directed by Kenny Leon -- Costumes by Jessica Jahn -- Set by Beowulf Boritt -- With: -- Ato Blankson-Wood -- Nick Rehberger -- Daniel Pearce -- Solea Pfeiffer -- John Douglas Thompson -- Lorraine Toussaint -- Hamlet is The Public Theater’s major production in Central Park this summer. I saw it in preview. Director Kenny Leon has given us an interpretation with a solid foundation as a domestic tragedy. There’s some terrific acting. But Mr. Leon peppers the production with such a variety of spices that we’re sometimes bewildered. His combining of styles that we find in the show is simultaneously post-modernist and Elizabethan. To begin with, the set is inscrutable — a modern mansion that seems to have half-fallen into a fissure of the earth. To indicate that we’re in Atlanta in 2020, there’s a large Stacey Abrams 2020 sign that’s half-buried in the lawn. There’s also a Jeep that’s been driven into the