THEATER REVIEW : Indecision Marks a ‘Hamlet’ Experiment at the Melrose

It’s impossible to know if Jack Colvin’s staging of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at the Melrose Theatre is an extension of the idea that Hamlet is always in rehearsal to kill his stepfather, Claudius, or can never get around to the act. That’s because, while the idea is to present a “Hamlet” in rehearsal, the concept isn’t followed through.

With Hamlet-like indecision, Colvin as director is out front with his assistant, then vanishes, popping up on stage as the Ghost and later in the play-within-the-play.

This leaves only James Loren as the stage manager to monitor things--until Loren must come on stage as Horatio. Then, no one is watching the rehearsal and you worry that this is just a “Hamlet” production that couldn’t afford costumes and a set.

This might have been, but isn’t, a kind of “Hamlet Examined,” with the kinds of starts and stops and questions that typify rehearsals. There is, though, John Hugo’s highly eccentric Hamlet, radically slow, painfully self-obsessed and far and away the only interesting performance in a nearly four-hour ersatz experiment.

“Hamlet,” Melrose Theatre, 733 N. Seward, Hollywood. Tonight at 7:30; Sunday 3 p.m. Ends Sunday. $15; (213) 380-3464. Running time 3 hours, 55 minutes.