By Brianna Ciniglio
staff writer

Feb. 27 featured a performance of “The Play’s The Thing: A One Hour Hamlet” with a pre-performance of “The Festival Musicale.”

The pre-performance acted as a way to set the mood and time period for “Hamlet,” as all of the music was from Shakespeare’s era. The singers were even dressed in costumes resembling the time period.

A few numbers were well-performed, while others fell flat; but nonetheless it was an interesting way to celebrate Shakespeare and transition the audience into his time.

“The Play’s The Thing” followed almost immediately after “The Festival Musicale,” once the set was prepared on stage. I really enjoyed this performance of “Hamlet.”

The idea of condensing “Hamlet” into one hour is an impressive feat in itself, considering that the show’s runtime is usually around three hours or more.

Sophomore Maya Jennings did a wonderful job in her role as the title character. This was not her first time in a Shakespeare play at Hofstra, as she played Duke Aumerle in “Richard II” last spring.

In this performance she truly shined in the spotlight. She was very emotional and lively in her acting, which made for some striking and humorous moments.

She portrayed Hamlet to be somewhat sassy and often condescending, which was fitting for a young man who is suspicious of almost everyone he’s close to.

I also enjoyed Caity MacNeill’s performance as Ophelia. MacNeill made it easy to sympathize with this character’s spiral into madness after the loss of her mother. Following Ophelia’s mother’s death, MacNeill trekked along the stage with a handful of flowers, singing her lines in a ghostly manner. Her movements and delivery of lines were sad and somewhat eerie.

One of the few critiques I have of the show in general was that it began with all the characters already dead. Although it was interesting to see the story flashback to the beginning and see how the characters all reached their dark ends, it was a little off-putting at times because some of the actors wore their bloody garments for the whole performance.

The show also severely cut down Hamlet’s skull scene, which I was a bit disappointed about, considering that this is one of the most famous scenes in the show, but there was only so much that could be done in so little time.

Considering that the performance only lasted for 60 minutes, I was highly impressed. “The Play’s The Thing” was a well-performed, condensed version of the classic Shakespeare play.