Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – In search of relevance: Deconstructing the classics in Teatro La Plaza’s HAMLET and Peculiar Works Project’s ANTIGONE IN ANALYSIS

• By drediman
• March 30, 2026
• No Comments

Over the past week or so, I was able to take in a pair of productions that searched for relevance in classic warhorses of Western Drama — specifically, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Sophocles’ Antigone — by thoroughly deconstructing and dissecting them. As always, read on for my thoughts.

TEATRO LA PLAZA’S HAMLET
Theatre for a New Audience
Through April 4

Over at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, I was able to catch Theatre for a New Audience’s presentation of Teatro La Plaza’s meta-theatrical production of Hamlet (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) from Peruvian director Chela De Ferrar. Devised with and performed by a young ensemble of eight actors with Down syndrome, the production — which has been in the midst of a global tour, now in New York for twelve performances only — defiantly reshapes the play in its own image, demanding that the works of Shakespeare be accessible to everyone. In essence, the piece interweaves the actors’ own personal experiences about living with Down syndrome alongside the Bard’s ubiquitous tragedy. What makes this production so affecting and impactful is that it interrogates Hamlet from the first person perspective (as opposed to Peculiar Works Projects’ Antigone in Analysis, which I’ll discuss below), prioritizing process and commentary as much as retelling the tale of the troubled Danish prince. In the process, the piece sheds new light and critical insight into the actors’ lives vis-à-vis Shakespeare’s enduring work, and vice versa. Performed in Spanish with projected English translations (which accompany Lucho Soldevilla’s witty and often haunting video projections), the show is driven by ensemble-based theatrical storytelling, wherein each actor has the opportunity — some more fulsomely than others — to play the coveted title role, much like in Karin Coonrod equally fascinating production of King Lear that played La MaMa earlier this winter (you can read my thoughts of that production here). And also similar to Out of the Box Theatrics’ recent production of Trash at PAC NYC (you can find my assessment here), this Hamlet is a visceral and candid look into the lives of a community of people for whom society was not designed. That being said, the piece doesn’t ask for pity, but merely implores, as a means of solidarity, that these human beings be seen in plain light as they want to be seen. Suffice to say, the performances across the board are courageous, irreverent, and often exhilarating — filled to the brim with penetrating candor and clear-eyed humanity.

ANTIGONE IN ANALYSIS
Peculiar Works Project at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
Through April 5

Also running Off-Broadway at La MaMa is Peculiar Works Project‘s world premiere of Antigone in Analysis (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED), Barbara Barclay‘s hallucinatory new play that imagines Antigone and her mother Jocosta — played by Oh, Mary!’s Bianca Leigh — in a purgatorial philosophical cross-fire between various schools of thought from across the ages. Obviously, the work makes for a fitting companion piece to Anna Ziegler’s Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) (you can read my assessment of that play here), which is currently conveniently running a few blocks away at the Public Theater. Although Ziegler’s play also recalibrates the play’s narrative, it nonetheless retains the play’s original structure and characters. Barclay, on the other hand, disrupts Sophocles’ play more aggressively, layering in the commentary of various thinkers throughout time — namely Georg Wilhelm, Friedrich Hegel, Søren Kierkegaard, Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler, and Luce Irigaray — from the safe haven of a fabricated salon-like setting. Although I applaud the effort to ultimately examine the well-trodden classical Greek myth through a feminist lens, the exercise comes at the price of having to sit through some sophomoric exchanges between the philosophers, whose cartoonish bickering about the characters and their motivations eventually becomes tiresome. The more successful element of Ralph Lewis’ production comes in the ritualistic retelling of Sophocles’ tragedy, which transpires in parallel with the devolving salon debates (the committed actors who portray the aforementioned philosophers also double as characters in Antigone) and is accompanied by the contributions of flutist Samantha Kochis, who skillfully navigates Alana Asha Amram’s evocative musical underscoring. Particularly inspired is how Barclay reimagines the story as a face-off between Antigone and her mother Jocosta, which gives the play fascinating new dimension as a dialogue between a mother and a daughter vis-à-vis their common bond as women. Suffice to say, the actresses playing these roles provide the evening’s most memorable turns — Leigh’s regal yet conflicted performance is the glue that holds the production together, while Alessandra Lopez makes for a sufficiently fiery Antigone.