“Hamlet” – 1986

Review Excerpts

“‘APT’S HAMLET SUPERB’…At center stage during the entire performance was APT artistic director Randall Duk Kim as Hamlet. Once again he proved his credentials as one of the foremost Shakespearean actors in America nad probably the world. Not just brooding and indecisive, Kim offers a Hamlet who is also sly and sure of himself. His superb natural gift—his ‘instrument,’ as singers call their voices—brought grandeur to every word. No truer test of Kim’s talents existed than his ability to command the entire stage throughout his several long and emotionally complex monologues.”
               —Jacob Stockinger, THE CAPITAL TIMES (7/5/1986)

“‘‘HAMLET’ SUPERB WITH KIM’ Randall Duk Kim as Falstaff, fine. Kim as Shylock, sensational. As Puck, OK, but with reservations about that dusky, sometime too gruff and timeworn voice. And now as Hamlet.…But with all of this said, the play stands or falls on its protagonist. The comic and tragic interweave inextricably in ‘Hamlet,’ and the many contradictions in Hamlet’s character require a fine actor to explore the depths. Well, Kim is a fine actor, as will attest anyone who has seen him in his myriad roles. But is he Hamlet? Quite frankly, I had reservations about Kim’s suitability for this role. In my mind, he does not look the part of a 30-ish athletic Dane. His voice, as noted, does not seem, to me, to be appropriate. Here, in fact, he looks older than his mother. But Friday night, Kim had a stage presence, a command of the role that for the most part overwhelmed such quibbling reservations. In Hamlet’s many and contradictory humors—intellectual, boorish, sensitive, gross, vacillating, quick-acting (and more)—Kim made us believe.”
               —John Aehl, WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL (1986)