Back to the Fringe (Part III)

The third Hamlet event of the 2014 Rochester Fringe Festival was the most complete rendition of the lot.  Produced by the Shakespeare Company of Greater Rochester and entitled Shakespeare's Greatest Hits, its stately purpose was to...  Well, I'll let the festival guide describe it.

"In the whole of the Shakespeare canon, two plays stand above the rest as the epitome of what makes Shakespeare entertaining, insightful and engaging: the gripping drama of HAMLET, and the doomed romance of ROMEO AND JULIET. See five brave souls portray every character (yes, every character) in every scene (yes, every scene) of these two great plays that play great together!  And all in about an hour…"

The stage at MuCCC was set for an interesting evening of drama. Not that there was much to set on that stage.  There was a backdrop screen to create a backstage area and a shin-high barricade to simulate a freshly-dug grave behind it.  The rest of the props were carried in and out by the five players.

As I discovered, the version of Hamlet presented here was akin to The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet previously described (see 2/9/14 post).  The pace was quick, as one might expect with the time constraint.  Cast members flew in and out of scene, veritably running from backstage to front stage.  As a result, costumes--bedsheets, hair extensions, beards--were sometimes not entirely in place.

One of the oddest parts of the performance was the script.  Regardless of props, each cast member carried a copy of the script.  The performance was basically a dramatic reading performed while running around stage.  I'm unsure if that was a sign that this production was thrown together quickly and without regard for memorization or if the reading is an intentional part of the play's kitschy charm.  It was off-putting at first, but after a while I had grown used to it.

There were several other interesting facets.  Only one of the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern duo appeared in a speaking role.  The other was a suit of clothes, carried on and offstage on a clothes hanger by the speaking member of the pair.  The play-within-a-play was performed by sock puppets, and Hamlet's father (the white sock) was offed rather violently by Claudius (the black sock).  The arras that hid Polonius was a bedsheet thrown hastily over his head and shoulder.  The duel ended when Hamlet and Laertes bled "on both sides," although no swords changed hands and no blows were ever struck.  Claudius did not have a chance to drink from the poisoned cup before he was stabbed to death.

In 24 minutes, it was all over.  Mission accomplished.  The entire play was compacted into less than a half hour.  Romeo and Juliet, equally amusing and equally brief, followed.  Then we were shooed from the theatre so it could be cleared for another play, slated to begin ten minutes later.  As dramatic evenings in general and Hamlet in particular go, this one was indeed wondrous strange.