Back to the Fringe (Part I)

It has been one year since the Rochester Fringe Festival provided a topic for a post.  (See 9/30/13.)  Its return to Rochester brought with it several productions that included presentations of Hamlet.

In a return from the 2013 festival, the Rochester Community Players presented SaMe SeX ShAkEsPeArE, a collection of gender-bent scenes from selected Shakespearean works.  This year, in addition to dramatic excerpts it included an original scene based on "Lover's Sonnet #116."

Blogger's luck shone again with a scene entitled "Hamlet Soliloquy."  The speech in question was the "Rogue and Peasant Slave" soliloquy.  It was performed by a young actress, Rebecca Miller, who was in perhaps her second stage performance.  (The playbill noted that her stage debut had been in A Midsummer Night's Dream during the recently concluded summer.)  She wore dark modern dress (hooded sweatshirt, jeans, low-cut Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers).  The set was minimal--a stage with one metal folding chair.  The speech itself was performed in a very straightforward, believable manner.  It was not overly emotive, not grossly edited, not overdone.  Frankly, it was real.  Ms. Miller managed to avoid direct eye contact with any audience members, something I found much more suitable than other versions of soliloquies that have bordered on breaking the fourth wall.  It was refreshing, and it left me wishing that there had been another Hamlet scene or two to follow.

SaMe SeX ShAkEsPeArE was a brief taste of Hamlet (and an up-and-coming talent in Ms. Miller).  It was enough to whet the appetite for both and to leave me looking forward to what was to come.