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Youre supposed to like me!
I am so Right Now!
Do your job and LIKE ME.Well, as the saying goes, sorry not sorry.
The great actress ends up coming across as slightly behind our time, rather than ahead of her own.
And by the turn of the century, high style was under attack.
Now youre just making up words.
Eventually she sighs and resolves to continue: He speaks and speaks but does nothing.
It is so ponderous.
In words, words, and more words.
Its the whole point Im told.
Who wants to see that?
To her lover, the playwright Rostand, shes even more glib.
To hear some people tell it, Shakespeare never had an original thought in his head, she quips.
Its supposed to be a mic drop, but this particular mic has been on the floor for ages.
But it doesnt come off.
One of the frustrations ofBernhardt/Hamletis that it has no sustaining engine.
What are we arguing aboutnow?
asks Rostand at one point, and the question feels a little too spot-on.
At the end of each scene, the actors must collect their energy for a new, self-contained debate.
Theyre solidly constructed they just dont go the distance.
Shaking with anxiety, she rushes straight through passages like this:
No.
Gone in the light of day, but at night it is nothing but the most malicious of battles.
Sanity is at risk at night and that is finally where Hamlet puts himself.
Turning a saint into a murderer is no mean trick.
Theres something there, perhaps even the keys to the role that Sarah has been searching for.
Now shes cracking something open, something that connects Hamlets dread to her own.
Thats not what it looks like.
I know which story interests me more, butBernhardt/Hamletnever fully makes the leap.
Instead, it spends its time plucking low-hanging fruit and getting its characters into arguments that feel like cul-de-sacs.
Bernhardt/Hamletis at the American Airlines Theatre.
