A one-time Christmas gift was the DVD set of the TV series Danger Man starring Patrick McGoohan. I've been working at it, on and off, an episode at a time, for a while now. Tonight I fired up the penultimate episode of the series, "Koroshi." It was strange, not quite up to par of the previous episodes, and it was in color (a first for the series). These qualities alone do not qualify for a blog post, however.
Our hero, John Drake, finds himself investigating the death of a Japanese agent. While on the trail, he ends up at a Kabuki theatre. There was no warning of what was to come. The cast members took their places. Two were seated upstage, wearing what appeared to be royal garb. Two downstage cast members each took sword in hand. Something looked familiar. The "king" upstage slipped a foreign substance into a tea (or sake?) cup. One of the sword fighters was slashed on his cheek. The "queen" eventually drank from the cup and fell dead, presumably poisoned. By the time the scene was over, the king, the queen, and the two sword fighters all lied dead on the stage. And this author was grinning from ear-to-ear.
John Drake caught it, too. He commented that it seemed familiar, and then gave away that it was a presentation of Hamlet (well, the final duel scene, anyway). It was unexpected for him to see it on stage, and it was equally unexpected for this viewer to see it on screen. The closing credits identified the segment indeed as Hamlet, and each actor was noted in his role by Shakespearean character name.
Fate, coincidence--call it what you will. It was another bit of Hamlet happenstance. And so it goes. One more episode of Danger Man, then on to The Prisoner.
