SANTA BARBARA Stars Try “Hamlet”

- Los Angeles Time, March 30. 1986 -

What happens when “Santa Barbara” goes to Denmark?

That was the curious prospect currently faced by three stars of the popular NBC soap opera--Lane Davies, Louise Sorel and John Allen Nelson--as they prepared for the “Hamlet” that opened Saturday at the Globe Playhouse.

"I needed to get back," said Sorel. "I was steeped in theater--born here, but I worked in New York a long time. So that's where the heart is. But you come out here, it gets cushy, you work a lot. Continual work is hard to turn down. And gradually, I lost the sense of being able to work in the theater." Concurred Davies (who organized the production and plays the title role), "The last time I was on the legitimate stage was three years ago in Atlanta. But in the last year and a half, I've been working almost every day on the soap, so I've done a \o7 lot\f7 of acting." Yet even now, a return to the stage holds some fear: “I guess I'm every bit as terrified as I should be, given the role I've taken on.”

He added that his Hamlet "may be a little more ambitious (than other characterizations). I think the usurpation of the crown really eats at him--almost as much as the other things eating at him. As long as Hamlet's alive, he's a threat to Claudius' crown. Both men are aware of that."

Sorel, too, has a slightly different slant on the queen. "She's not evil, just self-serving. In those times, women just sat around, procreated, looked beautiful--then were thrown away. So Gertrude's selfish, she's learned to survive. She's gone on to Claudius because old Hamlet was never around."

For Nelson, a relative novice to the stage, there are no comparisons to other productions. "This is the first 'Hamlet' I've seen," he offered candidly. "I'll tell you how this Laertes is going to be different: John Allen Nelson is doing it. I'm not being obnoxious. No one could ever copy my weird quirks."

From the new and unusual department comes the world premiere of Sam Diego's "Rules of the Road," opening Thursday at Theatre/Theater Backstage.