By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Like King Lear, Hamlet is a theatrical Everest. Seen in preview, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival's latest attempt at Shakespeare's stunningly timely masterpiece makes it to the first base camp, then runs out of oxygen as it challenges the heights.

It's ironic that in this 10th anniversary season, director Nick Rose, a company founding member (and a former artistic director), returns to the early favored style of modern dress, so that Hamlet (Brian Isaac Phillips) favors a black leather jacket and guns are the weapon of choice.

But Rose also has returned, to an unhappy degree, to the festival's early style of whim over logic. No matter what age, Hamlet is the story of a powerful family (whether royal or political). This is the dowdiest crowd of richie-richs you're likely to see. Setting the stage matters.

Prince can't stand alone

That is just one of many examples of how the production lets down Phillips' smart and committed performance - and the character Hamlet, the angry, confused, uncertain Prince of Denmark, does not stand on stage alone.

When the play begins, Hamlet already is angry that his mother (Sue Breving) has married his father's brother barely two months after the king's death. His internal conflict is matched by external conflict - enemy Norway stands ready to invade.

His anger turns to rage when his father's Ghost (Matt Johnson) appears to speak of murder most foul. (This is, by the way, the most bizarre interpretation I have seen of the ghost's scenes in 30 years of reviewing, but no more wrong-headed than the visit to Gomer Pyle-land for the gravediggers scene late in the action.)

The Prince embarks on a path of revenge in which he questions rather than taking decisive action, leading to the ruin of all he holds dear, as well as the villain.

The best that can be said of this Hamlet is that the company gives a fine clarity to the language. It is impossible to not understand the characters' thoughts and motivations in individual scenes, which on one level makes it a good intro for anyone not familiar with the work.

What Rose doesn't do is connect these clear scenes - some of them powerful - to each other, or credit anyone beyond Hamlet with having any complexity.

There isn't one actor who I haven't seen better elsewhere, and that includes Phillips, who plays rage, betrayal and heartbreak and, indeed, the overwhelming confusion in the life of Everyman but also needs to be a prince to his marrow, and that includes posture and swordplay.

It's a pleasure to have Jeremy Dubin back on the festival stage after an absence of almost two years. He's a palpable presence as courtier Guildenstern, a small role here but it bodes well for his return next month in Tom Stoppard's brilliant Hamlet companion piece Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Characters don't fill out

The always reliable Corinne Mohlenhoff is Hamlet's tragic love Ophelia. She's terrific in the mad scenes, but, like every other character, there's no back story. We don't know how she got from dutiful daughter to a woman who feels so deeply she's maddened by grief.

Dan Kenney plays villain Claudius with a single note - your cliched corrupt leader that faces off against the hero in every other action-movie. Boring.

Because it doesn't lift off and transport you as it so easily can, this Hamlet is not just timeless, but in this production's 31/2 hours, very often feels never-ending.

Hamlet, through Feb. 15, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, 381-2273.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com