Ghostly Fringe

The First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival has become an annual tradition in Upstate NY.  Another tradition has been at least one show worthy of a blog post.  This year was no exception.  Amidst the concerts and comedy was a theatrical presentation entitled HamletGhosts.  A production of the NYC-based company, The Brewing Dept., here's the description of the show, taken from the Fringe Festival Guide.

"Through a series of vignettes mixing Shakespeare with Lady Gaga, Yahoo Answers and personal narratives, audiences witness the guts of Hamlet without any of the plot."

It's an interesting idea.  Show a play without actually showing the play.  At the end of the seventy-minute show, though, this audience member was left wondering, "What was that?"

The show began with an actress dressed as a clown introducing the remaining cast members.  She became the de facto tour guide of the production, moving in and out of scenes and in and out of the audience, as the case warranted.  A schizophrenic scene followed, questioning the value of Hamlet and finding answers on Yahoo.  With that, we were off and running.

The rest of the production was an often unrecognizable mish-mash.  There was just enough Hamlet to justify the title.  The play was five acts in length.  There were occasional snippets of dialogue borrowed from Hamlet's soliloquies.  Ophelia proclaimed Hamlet's madness...and caressed the blogger's right arm by way of example.  Mel Gibson appeared; at least, his voice did as the audio from the chamber scene in the Zeffirelli film was played while a cast member lip-synced.  The duel scene of Act V was reenacted, albeit very loosely.  The play closed with dead bodies strewn about the stage and our tour guide lamenting the end of the performance.

Mixed into the obvious Hamlet allusions were numerous oddities.  There was plentiful discussion of death, especially suicide.  There were stories of Twitter meltdowns and open readings of depressive diary entries.  There were dance numbers set to contemporary pop music.  There was cross-dressing and soft-core (fully clothed) erotica.  One scene involved a shirtless cast member recounting his sexual discovery and coming out.  In what had to be the most bizarre inclusion of all, a fish hat-wearing cast member gave directions on how to clean a fish while using audience members to assist her.

The Fringe Festival is touted as a celebration of creativity.  This show was certainly creative and unique.  Somewhat endearing in its outright weirdness, it was an interesting, albeit not terribly enjoyable diversion.

P.S.  Fortunately, I was able to exorcise the ghosts immediately after the show.  Live and loud rock music courtesy of The Ginger Faye Bakers was the perfect remedy to scare them away!