Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth
Nov. 13th, 2011 02:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidThursday night I ushered for Whistler in the Dark's production of Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoot's Macbeth, two one-act plays by Tom Stoppard, at the BCA, which has the description
Which pretty much covers it. The first play started in a completely empty space, building up to a hilarious highlights version of Hamlet. The second was set in what was to be a living room, with all the less-than-theater-usual lighting that implies; I can't remember the last time so much of the action happened in the dark.
As always, Stoppard impresses the heck out of me, and the players did an excellent job with it.
The one bad part of the night: walking to the theater in my rain boots, wearing what were apparently less than adequate socks, which caused lots of blisters. Foot pain sucks.
In the first play, three students are setting up for their production of a fifteen-minute Hamlet to be performed in its original language. The catch? These students speak Dogg - a language comprised of English words but with different meanings. But when an English-speaking delivery man arrives with their set components, both languages break down and new ways of communication must be devised. Capped off with a hilarious 15-minute Hamlet, this is Stoppard at his word-playing gleeful best.
In the second play, renegade actors stage a secret performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that becomes a stark and moving metaphor for resistance in a time of censorship.
Which pretty much covers it. The first play started in a completely empty space, building up to a hilarious highlights version of Hamlet. The second was set in what was to be a living room, with all the less-than-theater-usual lighting that implies; I can't remember the last time so much of the action happened in the dark.
As always, Stoppard impresses the heck out of me, and the players did an excellent job with it.
The one bad part of the night: walking to the theater in my rain boots, wearing what were apparently less than adequate socks, which caused lots of blisters. Foot pain sucks.