(Enlarge) Dan Crane makes for an unusually motivated young prince in the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival's "Hamlet," outside on the meadow at Evergreen Museum in Baltimore. (Photo by Grace Palmer)

Hamlet is usually presented as such a brooding character that his to-be-or-not-to-be musings make him seem nearly paralyzed on stage, but he moves with athletic speed in the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival outdoor production of "Hamlet" on the meadow at Evergreen Museum.

The tightly edited, fast-paced staging presumably wants to emphasize that Hamlet is an active character who quickly acts on his strategy to avenge the death of his father. Although director Michael Carleton makes a valid point in terms of Hamlet's actions and how they lead to a pile of dead bodies on stage, what's gained in muscular force is lost in meditative impact.

This "Hamlet" flies by and makes little emotional impression.

Emphasizing its action hero-oriented approach, the production has a strikingly non-traditional set design by Robert Marietta. The industrial site-evocative elements include metal scaffolding, a slab of corrugated metal siding, factory-appropriate windows, and two green metal trash barrels.

When the actors first appear, they bang metal rods against those trash cans in rock-drummer fashion. You might find yourself checking your ticket stub to see if you haven't mistakenly purchased a ticket for a performance by Stomp.

But this is "Hamlet," complete with an all-in-black title character who actually spends some of his time climbing that scaffolding with the angry agility of Mad Max exploring a post-industrial wasteland.

It gets your attention, that's for sure, but does it serve the text well? Every actor seems to be shouting through the early scenes, and some of the lines are recited so quickly that their linguistic beauty is an early casualty. Also, ominous recorded music swells to such a level that even the shouted dialogue is nearly drowned out.

Lest you conclude that something is rotten in the stately meadow of Evergreen, this production eventually settles down a bit. It never really packs much dramatic punch, but the swift pacing does viscerally convey how the revenge-minded Hamlet's schemes result in the body count in the final scene.

Also, this production does have an actor who seems appropriate in terms of its conceptual stance. Dan Crane, who has extensive Shakespeare credentials, is a lanky and limber Hamlet. He negotiates the unorthodox stage space with ease, and he wields a sword quite convincingly. His speeches go by at too rapid a clip for some tastes, but one assumes this was by way of directorial design.

The really fine performance here comes from Richard Pilcher as the verbose and fatuous old Polonius. This actor does a really good job of delivering Polonius' bombastic rhetoric, bringing out the humor that resides in this tragedy. Pilcher also brings out the philosophical truths residing within Polonius' cliched statements, thereby providing some of the emotional complexity that the production generally lacks.

There are capable performances by others in the cast: Bruce R. Nelson as Claudius, Libya Pugh as Gertrude, Seth Reichgott as Horatio, Emily Clare Zempel as Ophelia, Jaclyn Keough as Marcellus, and J.J. Area as Laertes. Several of the actors also play multiple minor characters, adding to the show's busy nature.

Briefly stated, this "Hamlet" moves so fast that it in effect announces last call before the picnic blanket-seated audience has finished its wine and cheese.

The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival's "Hamlet" runs through July 26 on the meadow at Evergreen Museum, at 4545 N. Charles Street in Baltimore. Call 410-366-8596 or go to www.baltimoreshakespeare.org.

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