WBUR The ARTery: Ghosts Of Lincoln And Shakespeare Haunt ‘Our American Hamlet’ In CSC Production

The production boasts a series of fine performances, and its mixture of various theatrical devices proves transporting. But I found myself much more interested in Edwin’s story, with its details of the world of 19th-century American theater, than in the play’s more elaborate concepts, which sometimes work at cross purposes with the storytelling. At key moments, members of the Booth family resolve conflicts by slipping into roles from “Hamlet,” a device that moves things along but rarely feels rooted in the actual story. It also keeps us from seeing Edwin, John and the rest respond in character to their crises.