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Article snippet: Who’s afraid of “Hamlet”? Certainly not the director Sam Gold, whose gloriously involving new production at the Public Theater treats Shakespeare’s daunting tragedy with an easy, jokey familiarity that’s usually reserved for siblings and longtime drinking buddies. As in such relationships, Mr. Gold and his top-flight cast — led by a majestically impudent Oscar Isaac in the title role — tease and tweak the object of their affections, which happens to be the best-known play in English literature and one of the knottiest. But that’s because the creative team here obviously knows and loves its “Hamlet” so very well. Hamlet famously tells his mother that he is cruel only to be kind. Mr. Gold’s production is disrespectful only out of a profound and deeply humane respect. It’s an attitude that pumps gusty air into the musty corridors of the royal castle at Elsinore. And the show’s intimidating four hours pass as quickly as a night at a bar with some of the best storytellers you’ve ever met. Staged in the Public’s tiny Anspacher space, this “Hamlet,” which opened on Thursday night, invites you to get close to its doomed characters — almost as close as Hamlet is to his Ophelia when he lays his head in her lap. But we have an advantage over Ophelia (embodied with heartbreaking incomprehension by Gayle Rankin, in a breakout performance), whom Hamlet must keep in the dark as to his real intentions. We, on the other hand, are taken directly into the tortured prince’s confiden... Link to the full article to read more