Hamlet
So. As the incredibly creative title (inspiration gained from the great bard himself, perhaps) might suggest, last Saturday I caught a production of Hamlet.
That's right. I donned my best, uuh... long-sleeved black t-shirt; and prepared to get all cultured-up.
It was produced by a bunch of ppl known as the Creation Theatre Company and, while I'm no master of Shakespeare, I thought they did a pretty good job. In particular: given that I hadn't read the play, and had only some brief plot synopses to go on, the fact that I could follow pretty much everything that was going on is definate bonus marks.
While the language was, at least to my ears, original, they used something of a modern slant on the costumes and props: pulling out the old 'replace the long pointy metal thing with the small black pistol' trick, for example. . However, I'm perfectly happy to overlook any minor (and perhaps major) blemishes, due to the fact that they managed to squeeze in, usually between scenes, bits of APC's version of 'Imagine', 'Eraser', from Thom Yorke's album, as well as a bit of Muse (among other things). Unexpected, but awesome.
The production was in Oxford Castle. On first impressions it didn't, to be frank, feel entirley castle-like; with a big restraunt and shops and stuff. Also, having surprisingly little in the way of old castley-looking walls, etc didn't help a great deal. Although, this tower WAS kinda looming in behind the stage, which was prolly enough.
Anyway. It was outdoors, the weather was brilliant for it and the sun kinda finished setting just before the last act - which was perfect (cue: stab and poison-fest). Pretty nice work all round on the extra-stage setting.
So, although it wasn't the Globe and nor was it stratford-on-avon or whatever, it was still pretty cool.
That's right. I donned my best, uuh... long-sleeved black t-shirt; and prepared to get all cultured-up.
It was produced by a bunch of ppl known as the Creation Theatre Company and, while I'm no master of Shakespeare, I thought they did a pretty good job. In particular: given that I hadn't read the play, and had only some brief plot synopses to go on, the fact that I could follow pretty much everything that was going on is definate bonus marks.
While the language was, at least to my ears, original, they used something of a modern slant on the costumes and props: pulling out the old 'replace the long pointy metal thing with the small black pistol' trick, for example. . However, I'm perfectly happy to overlook any minor (and perhaps major) blemishes, due to the fact that they managed to squeeze in, usually between scenes, bits of APC's version of 'Imagine', 'Eraser', from Thom Yorke's album, as well as a bit of Muse (among other things). Unexpected, but awesome.
The production was in Oxford Castle. On first impressions it didn't, to be frank, feel entirley castle-like; with a big restraunt and shops and stuff. Also, having surprisingly little in the way of old castley-looking walls, etc didn't help a great deal. Although, this tower WAS kinda looming in behind the stage, which was prolly enough.
Anyway. It was outdoors, the weather was brilliant for it and the sun kinda finished setting just before the last act - which was perfect (cue: stab and poison-fest). Pretty nice work all round on the extra-stage setting.
So, although it wasn't the Globe and nor was it stratford-on-avon or whatever, it was still pretty cool.
Labels: entertainment that doesn't (really) involve boozing, pretending to be cultured
posted by Skarnz at 6:41 am
2 Comments:
I've yet to see any "pistols replace swords" production but I feel the two weapons are fundamentally different and wouldn't really give the same dramatic effect at all.
Well; strangely, they only used the pistols in a couple of scenes...
There was also use of a knife and a duel involving swords of some kind (which I thought was pretty cool and well done).
But, that did kinda make me wonder why they bothered at all with the pistols in the earlier scenes...
Still: In its entirety, it was pretty cool.
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