Well, me and the misses went over the river to the Globe last
night to see Billy-Boy Bard's latest - Hamlet, Prince of Dagenham (or summit).
Now, as Betty will tell you, I'm a big Shakespeare fan (especially his early
funny ones) but I’ll admit I had my doubts about going to see this. I'd been
hearing rumours all over the shop that it was a remake of that other Hamlet play
(not that I'd see it) and very similar to Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy” (not that
I've seen that neither). But let me tell you – you can forget all about that
other rubbish! This Hamlet was the business!
There were some lovely scary bits. Right at
the start there was all this goings on with a ghost and our Betty nearly had an
accident at this other bit when Hamlet kills this old bloke behind a curtain.
And as for Hamlet himself, he might start off as a bit of a Moaning-Minnie but
once he start's acting as if he's “a few galleons short of an Armada” it gets
well good - hats off to Burbage for that as he delivered in buckets as always. He
was great at the whole “Will he? Won’t he?” bit about killing his uncle, the
King. (Nasty piece of work that uncle - can't remember his name though) Course,
if was me and he’d killed my father and married my mother I'd have just said “stuff
it” and stabbed him right in the chapels!
All the players were up to scratch last
night; all the lads and all the “other lads” (if I have to explain to our Betty
once more that the women aren’t women she’ll be going for a swim with Ophelia,
I’ll tell you!)
Now the comedy was a bit thin on the ground. Personally I don’t
find grave-diggers that funny – if he’d juggled the skulls or fallen into the
grave a couple of times that might have got him a laugh! And I think Billy-Boy
missed a trick not using that pair, Rosy-stone and Guild-his-whatsit, a bit
more. Maybe like Fallstaff they should get their own play! Maybe a bit of back-story or something telling us what they got up to in England (but what are
the chances of that happening).
I will have to admit that the play did get a bit befuddling at
times. (I had to explain the whole "To Not Be, To Be Not Be" bit three
or four times to our Betty on the way home) Especially confusing was the play going
on inside the play (all a bit post-modern for me).
But that final scene was amazing! What with the sword fight and
the poison and bodies everywhere! But then I'm a blood-thirsty one me. I just
love Theatre-Nasties. Now, I don’t want to spoil the end for you in case
you go yourself but basically in this one - no one gets out alive!
Daniel Smallpiece, Firkin Bottom Knocker (retired)
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