Hamlet lite
May. 4th, 2009 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI went to the HRDC production of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, which is based on Shakespeare's play. Unfortunately, it is not nearly so good as the original. In fact, I ended up walking out partway through (just before Polonius was killed), and I was not the first to leave the decidedly uncrowded (closer to mostly empty, actually) space.
Some of it was basics: having actors spitting out words as quickly as possible is never great. Others always sounded like they were snootily declaiming, another way of allowing no emotional tone into the words either.
Other things compounded poor decisions into a whole production of fail. I'm not sure who decided that a set that was all in front of the curtain and consisted of bedding, a chair, and heaps of cotton were the way to go, but it didn't make any sense to me. Sure, it allowed people to lounge around comfortably, and hide under duvets, but this is not a feature I'm usually seeking in a classical play. Nor did it make much sense to me to have Horatio/ Rosencrantz/ Guildenstern have some black stuff tied over his eyes, and wear red lipstick that emphasized his self-satisfied smiles. I've no idea why Claudius might be carrying around handfuls of flour, nor why the Ghost might sing his lines (with a very lovely voice, but the concept was made of fail as executed). Especially annoying was how oversexed Gertrude was, hanging off Hamlet, touching everyone she could reach in a suggestive manner, showing off spiderweb stockings especially when using a splastic head of a black man to apparently masturbate off to the side of the stage.
Um, no.
Apparently this is supposed to be an edgy reinterpretation of the play; I found it to be dreck, and left, lest I waste yet more time on it.
Thankfully, it has closed, so if you haven't subjected yourself to it already, you're safe from the possibility.
Some of it was basics: having actors spitting out words as quickly as possible is never great. Others always sounded like they were snootily declaiming, another way of allowing no emotional tone into the words either.
Other things compounded poor decisions into a whole production of fail. I'm not sure who decided that a set that was all in front of the curtain and consisted of bedding, a chair, and heaps of cotton were the way to go, but it didn't make any sense to me. Sure, it allowed people to lounge around comfortably, and hide under duvets, but this is not a feature I'm usually seeking in a classical play. Nor did it make much sense to me to have Horatio/ Rosencrantz/ Guildenstern have some black stuff tied over his eyes, and wear red lipstick that emphasized his self-satisfied smiles. I've no idea why Claudius might be carrying around handfuls of flour, nor why the Ghost might sing his lines (with a very lovely voice, but the concept was made of fail as executed). Especially annoying was how oversexed Gertrude was, hanging off Hamlet, touching everyone she could reach in a suggestive manner, showing off spiderweb stockings especially when using a splastic head of a black man to apparently masturbate off to the side of the stage.
Um, no.
Apparently this is supposed to be an edgy reinterpretation of the play; I found it to be dreck, and left, lest I waste yet more time on it.
Thankfully, it has closed, so if you haven't subjected yourself to it already, you're safe from the possibility.