In Shakespeare's play, not only Hamlet has more than one side. But here, the supporting characters are one-dimensionalized. Polonius, who a generation ago was often played as too silly, is played as too dignified; his speech seems not to wander but to march triumphantly on thin air. Claudius misses the chance in the prayer scene to show a private self appreciably unlike his public self. And Ophelia does the mad scene without any development or continuity of feeling. It's a good contrast to Hamlet's madness-- he's possessed; she's, as it were, dispossessed-- but that's all it is; neither she nor anyone else really counterbalances Campbell Scott's Hamlet. It's a good, energetic, intelligent but lonely performance.
