Shakespeare adaptations are like steak: even though everyone has different preferences, the quality of product will always be noticed. ‘Hamlet House of Horror’ is a good production, but not to my purist taste: if Glee performed Hamlet for a Halloween special episode, this would be it. Like the TV series, the production’s strongest element was the music and choreography. Multi-instrumentalist Max Barton, who played the Ghost, superbly maintained the captivating acoustic score and sound effects. The production uses the first quarto of Hamlet as it “gave them licence to push boundaries of performance further”. An adaptation that excludes the ‘To Be’ soliloquy to include a pseudo-wrestling match in the penultimate scene, to “push boundaries of performance” isn’t justifiable. Entertaining, nevertheless.
The Playhouse at Hawke and Hunter Green Room, 1 – 29 Aug, 5.30pm (6.45pm), £9.50 – 10.50, fpp 268.
tw rating 3/5
[lmm]
Sections: by Lynsey Martenstyn - ED2011 Theatre Reviews - tw rating 3/5 | Tags: The Playhouse Green Room
Also from ThreeWeeks...
ED2011 Theatre Review: Secret Window, Secret Garden (The Lincoln Company)
When Mort Rainer receives an unwelcome houseguest demanding to know why he stole his story, his world begins to disintegrate around him. An adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, this eerie...
ED2011 Theatre Review: Tis In My Memory Locked: An Adaptation Of Hamlet (The Second Earth Theatre Company USA)
Alas, poor Second Earth Theatre Company, who could not have chosen a more bitterly ironic title for this lacklustre and utterly forgettable reworking of Shakespeare’s heartbreaking classic. Although the Dane...
ED2011 NEWS: Fringe comedians lined up for wrestling extravaganza
The comedy fraternity will gather in the Pleasance Grand for a very special night in the middle of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, for an event called, simply, ‘The Wrestling’, which...
GET ALERTS OF NEW THREEWEEKS CONTENT: Click here to sign up to the free ThreeWeeks email
-
ll627
