In one of the many famous Hamlet arias, the scheming hero asks the members of a traveling acting troupe to "Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you-trippingly on the tongue." He also advises the ensemble not to "saw the air too much with your hand" and goes on to say, "It offends me to the soul to hear a robust, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters." But it's odd that Michael Stuhlbarg, now playing the title role in the Public Theater's abysmal Hamlet should be handing out any thespian tips at all.

Indeed, Stuhlbarg speaks just about every line as untrippingly as he could; saws the air so often that were there actual wood on the stage he could have stacked enough [...]