Hamlet: Slings and Arrows

Hamlet
Folger's Shakespeare Theatre - Washington, DC
September 8, 2012

Chelsea - B+
Brad - A

Ahhh, Hamlet.  Here is a little Hamlet song to entertain you:

This is one of those plays that everyone assumes everyone knows and understands.  After seeing it for the first time, I am hard-pressed to believe that most people even know the basic story, let alone understand it.

Sadly, this was our last play at Folger's Shakespeare Theatre during our Shakespeare escapade.  Over the past year, Chelsea and I have come to love this place.  All of the shows we've seen there have been great, and the theatre is in a part of town we don't visit often.

And this time we discovered that they have an awesome garden:

Before the show, we thought we would be sophisticated and grab a drink at ye old wine bar a couple of blocks away from the theatre.  This place had wine on tap.  No kidding.

So, after deep discussions about life, liberty, and the pursuit of self-imposed, arbitrary year-long goals, we made our way across the street to the Folger's to see Hamlet.

Interestingly, Hamlet was put on by a traveling company from the Globe theatre in London.  We also ended up going on opening night.  The theatre was full of geriatrics and pretense, a perfect venue for two nearly-weds seeing their twenty-ninth Shakespeare play in the past ten months.

So, Hamlet:  You know what . . . I am not going to feed into the public's belief that the plot of Hamlet is common knowledge.  So, if you want to know the story of Hamlet, you need to read it or go see it or . . . get on Netflix and watch the first season of the Gemini Award Winning (that's a Canadian Emmy) Slings and Arrows.  Slings and Arrows is a dram-edy that follows the trials and tribulations of the fictional New Burbage Shakespeare Festival.  In the first season, conflicted actor/director Geoffrey Tennant re-invigorates the festival by putting on a stripped down, visceral version of Hamlet.  Yes, Chelsea and I watched Season One (and two and most of three).

But I digress...

This performance was great.  The actor who played Hamlet was awesome.  During most of the play, actors in the background would step into the background of scenes to do sound effects.  But unlike Comedy of Errors, they were great.  They truly added to the supernatural scenes.  Hamlet nailed his monologues.  And like Slings and Arrows, it was a stripped down, fast-paced visceral play.  The grave diggers scene was awesome (and full of legal jargon).  Great play.  Great production.  Chelsea and I brought down the average age of the audience by about 10 years.

Good bye sweet Folgers.

Brad-let