By Steve Simmons – Posted at 9:32 p.m., Wednesday, May 18, 2022
The Antaeus Theatre Company is returning to live in-person performances in a big way.
The Glendale-based troupe, dedicated to “timely and timeless works with a passion for the classics,” is launching its new season with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The company’s first-ever production of the Bard’s masterwork in its 30-year history opens Friday, May 20. (For details, see below.)
Long-time company member Ramón de Ocampo is tackling the title role of the “philosopher prince of Denmark,” who following the death of his father, returns home to find his uncle now occupies the throne and the queen, his mother’s, bed. Now he has to choose between moral integrity and vengeance.
While he’s undertaken other Shakespeare roles for the company, Angelo/Claudio in Measure for Measure, Hal in Henry IV, Part One, Banquo in Macbeth and Edgar in King Lear, this is his first crack at what he terms the “Everest of acting” — Hamlet.
Photo courtesy of
Antaeus Theatre Company
The production is directed by Elizabeth Swain, co-director of the company’s production of Measure for Measure, just prior to the pandemic. This Hamlet has been streamlined for an inclusive all-Antaeus cast that features Sally Hughes, Lloyd Roberson II and Joel Swetow in multiple roles. “Doubling up on roles and cross-gender casting is nothing new,” says Swain. “In Shakespeare’s time, like now, it was often a matter of expediency; all the actors were men, and they often simply didn’t have enough actors. In our production, Sally takes on four characters (including Guildenstern) in the space of 10 pages, which should be something to watch. She literally has to run off the stage, switch costumes and run back on five times in about 10 minutes.”
De Ocampo knows the power of Shakespeare. As one of the organization’s teaching-artists, for 10 years he took part in a program bringing the Bard’s words to juvenile detention centers. “The kids were incredibly responsive,” recalls de Ocampo. Bringing the lyrical nature of the works to youth brought up with hip hop and a strong culture of street poetry, “made them see these forms have been around for a long time,” says de Ocampo. “Themes like tragic flaws and revenge resonate with them. There was never a time it didn’t. It’s that good.”
He is the narrator and host of Antaeus’ popular series of radio plays, The Zip Code Plays, now in their third season, that explore diverse L.A. County communities. A two-time Audiofile Award winner, de Ocampo has been an audio book narrator for more than 20 years.
Following are excerpts from our interview on the challenges, joys and pitfalls of taking on the iconic Dane.
Why did you want the part?
The “Great Dane’ has been a dream of mine since I set eyes on him in college (Carnegie Mellon School of Drama). Besides ‘To be or not to be,’ I had only dipped my toe into one scene. So many people have ideas about him, and I didn’t. I have to take a swing at it and explore what this guy’s about.
How do you make such an iconic part, associated with so many great actors, your own?
I think everybody who’s played Hamlet realizes it’s the biggest role they’ll ever play. I’ve counted 1,500 lines. At a certain point all you can do is find a way to bring yourself to it and not look at other people’s Hamlets. I thought it’s such a big role, I better learn it first.
What was the key to finding your Hamlet?
There has to be something that connects and resonates in a place that’s real for you. I’m moved by the drawn-out family relationships, the idealization of a father and the struggle with a mother and what happens inside that fight. There’s a big sequence with Hamlet and his mother that asks if mothers and sons can come to terms with their faults and understand each other, especially after a tragedy.
Photo by Jenny Graham
Do you approach the world-famous soliloquies with excitement or caution?
Everyone knows ‘To be, or not to be’ and ‘What a piece of work is a man.’ Making those your own and fresh is the reason actors are attracted to this ‘Mt. Everest’ of a role to see if you can climb it. It’s the best-written role you’ll ever have. It’s so well written it leaves you room to find something new in every performance and wiggle room to move from different thoughts and ideas in just one scene.
How did you prepare for and research the role?
I started calling our director Elizabeth and we discussed what every word meant. As I progressively understood, I branched out and started reading a lot from the point of view of actors and some incredibly academic work. I found John Dover Wilson’s What Happens in Hamlet and Harold Bloom’s Hamlet: Poem Unlimited especially helpful. And in the last couple of weeks, I started watching interviews and some other actors scenes and sequences. I celebrate their performances. It’s interesting to see where they went and where I went. It feels different.
Different in what way?
After looking at others, I can say what my Hamlet is not. Laurence Olivier played up the Oedipal complex angle and I didn’t find that at all. There’s no way to do this part without being you. If you try to mimic someone else or do what they did, it’s impossible. The role requires too much to add even one more thing.
I really noticed how moral Hamlet is. When he says ‘O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,’ Hamlet’s taking suicide off the table and wishing God hadn’t made a law against it. Morality is part of his tragic flaw. He’s sworn to the ghost of his father to avenge his death, even though it might be the devil tempting him or whether or not he’s being lied to or taken advantage of.
He’s not wishy-washy or indecisive. He needs a code to get through the pain and misery and make a decision, and he’s constantly trying to get there. He even has to kill his uncle at the right time for it to be moral.
Your director has said that “at its heart, this is a revenge play. And it’s a very good one.” Agree?
I think that often, the revenge theme takes a back seat, and it becomes a play about suicide or mothers and sons. Shakespeare was steeped in revenge tragedies, and they were extremely popular and he’s using a revenge play to show Hamlet’s humanity. Hamlet knew all types of revenge and he’s putting on a revenge play inside a revenge play. If you skip that drive and just focus on the angst, you lose the thing that make the angst compelling. It’s what propels Hamlet forward to deal with the deep betrayal he feels.
Hamlet allows for different interpretations and accents – romance and politicking and fathers and sons—but what resonates with me and Elizabeth is the revenge tragedy and that he’s a person who ruminates. ‘To be, or not to be” is about deciding to do something horrible and kill someone. He’s a real person debating what means to take a life and have a life.
Are there any pitfalls?
There’s a purposefulness to Hamlet’s craziness in the play, and it comes from anger. He has a manic, depressive nature to him. He’s vibrant, energetic and positive, yet fierce. If it’s all about him spiraling down into madness, sadness and depression, it becomes a trap. For me, the best thing to do is focus on Hamlet’s objective—‘How do I make it right with the world to overcome the obstacles to avenge my father’s death. And how do I do it as a human being.”
Photo courtesy of
Antaeus Theatre Company
How has the part changed you as an actor?
What happen to you is that things get mined and you learn things about yourself as person and as a performer. It’s written is such a way that you can’t plan out the whole night. It moves so quickly that the most you can do is get kicked down the steep slope. Bloom writes about how he thinks Hamlet got away from Shakespeare and Shakespeare is chasing after him.
I’m pretty sure this part is trying to kill you. Physically and mentally it takes every ounce of what you have. There’s no way around it. Movement, ideas and that beautiful Shakespearean language all get mashed together and I feel like a completely different Hamlet by Act V than I was in Act 1.
What makes this production unique?
The play’s been compacted, but we haven’t lost any characters. We still have Fortinbras, a character I think Hamlet admires. He’s a warring military person who does what he does. And Hamlet never meets him. I think the compacting tightens the action and keeps it propelling forward.
Also, the Antaeus is an intimate space, so the audience becomes a kind of second player in a way and we pull them in with us.
What’s it like to be doing this role at this point in your career?
I left props and my script for Measure for Measure in the dressing room when theaters closed so it’s wonderful to be back in the theater. I thought this could be my only shot at Hamlet before I age out of it; I’m not Ian McKellen. This is my home company so it’s a huge honor that they would ask. And its special to be doing this with a company of people you know (Starring alongside de Ocampo are married couple Gregg T. Daniel and Veralyn Jones as Claudius and Gertrude; Jeanne Syquia as Ophelia; Peter Van Norden as Polonius; Michael Kirby as Laertes and and Adam J. Smith as Horatio) and they’re all exploring something personal and doing for the first time. I had to ask, ‘am I ready to take the big swing.’ I have to. I might not get another chance.’
After Friday, May 20, performances continue at 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays through Monday, Jun e20 at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale. (No matinee on Saturday, May 21; dark Monday, May 23 and Monday, May 30). Tickets are $40. For reservations and information, call 818-506-1983 or visit www.antaeus.org.
Steve Simmons is an accomplished writer and editor who writes about a wide array of topics including entertainment. His successful experience at the Beverly Hills Courier and other publications set the stage for his blog. Contact Steve at steve.simmons0211@gmail.com or 626-788-6734.
