Adelaide Fringe: Beowulf, Canned Hamlet
Mon, 15 Mar 2004, 07:46 amDanny1 post in thread
Adelaide Fringe: Beowulf, Canned Hamlet
Mon, 15 Mar 2004, 07:46 amSaw some more Fringe shows this weekend:
Beowulf - David Malikoff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This show was billed to appeal to Lord of the Rings fans (as the tale of Beowulf was apparently one of Tolkein's influences) and well... that marketing was certainly true. Being myself a fan of LotR, Buffy, Angel & Alien (which are mentioned on the flyer for Beowulf), I thoroughly enjoyed this dramatic storytelling.
Malikoff, in ordinary black clothing, struts around his magnificient set telling this ancient tale with majesty and grandeur. His voice and projection is wonderful, and he does adopt characters at times, although none of them is too hammy or over-the-top. The story is told as if being read from an old manuscript - ie the language isn't that *modernised* apart from using modern English (rather than something out of Shakespeare) so comparing it to Tolkein is probably a good idea - nothing 20th/21st century about the narration, but still completely understandable.
Part 1 tells of Beowulf travelling to Denmark to rid King Hrothgar of a monster Grendel. After a very brief interval & set change, the story is completed by telling of Beowulf's final battle - now an elderly king - with a dragon.
Malikoff's performance and movement keep the audience enthralled, and although lighting is used to good effect (especially a lot of uplighting to give shadows to Malikoff's face) the lighting changes seem rather jarring at times (a little more crossfading rather than fade out fade in would have been better).
Despite the lighting distraction, this is a great piece of "storytelling" theatre, and if it is being performed near you, go and see it :)
Canned Hamlet - Sound & Fury
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three comedians from Los Angeles (who didn't vote for Bush, so they tell us) have made a name of themselves doing "Fakespeare". As you would guess, Canned Hamlet is a comedic retelling of Hamlet, and as I'm fairly fond of Shakespeare parodies, I expected to enjoy this as well.
Richard, Phil and Shelby were chatting to the audience while they were waiting in line, and also a fair amount before the show began (taking photos, telling dirty limericks & jokes) until all was settled and the show began.
Of course, with three men playing all the roles, not everything can be done well, but they had scripted this fairly well. Characterisations included Ophelia as if she was a guest on Oprah (talk to the hand, girlfriend), Polonius as a grouchy old Billy Connolly sound-alike, Hamlet's best friend Fellatio, and a bit of audience participation as well - two hapless souls were dragged out to be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, reading from prompt cards... including certain lines which made these poor victims break down in tears of laughter before actually getting the nerve to read them out loud so everyone else could get the joke. Laertes was also an audience member, dragged out for the final scene to have a sword fight with Hamlet...
The Hamlet/Gertrude/Polonius-behind-the-curtains scene was given in a movie genre - which the audience got to pick. We had "Spaghetti Western", which involved a lot of imaginary double saloon doors, and Phil coming in and being an impromptu tumbleweed, one of the funniest moments of the performance!
In amongst this were some great parodies and references to a bunch of 80's songs, Keanu Reeves, and "To be or not to be" in the style of a popular movie/musical (why spoil the fun by telling you?)
My only gripe is the fact that parts which were scripted to look improvised were much too obviously scripted... when it probably would have been funnier if either a) they didn't try and pretend to have improvised the scenes or b) they *did* actually improvise. In fact, the bits that *were* improvised quite often were funnier.
All in all, these guys have written a great piece of Fakespeare, with plenty of chuckles and guffaws throughout.
[%sig%]
Beowulf - David Malikoff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This show was billed to appeal to Lord of the Rings fans (as the tale of Beowulf was apparently one of Tolkein's influences) and well... that marketing was certainly true. Being myself a fan of LotR, Buffy, Angel & Alien (which are mentioned on the flyer for Beowulf), I thoroughly enjoyed this dramatic storytelling.
Malikoff, in ordinary black clothing, struts around his magnificient set telling this ancient tale with majesty and grandeur. His voice and projection is wonderful, and he does adopt characters at times, although none of them is too hammy or over-the-top. The story is told as if being read from an old manuscript - ie the language isn't that *modernised* apart from using modern English (rather than something out of Shakespeare) so comparing it to Tolkein is probably a good idea - nothing 20th/21st century about the narration, but still completely understandable.
Part 1 tells of Beowulf travelling to Denmark to rid King Hrothgar of a monster Grendel. After a very brief interval & set change, the story is completed by telling of Beowulf's final battle - now an elderly king - with a dragon.
Malikoff's performance and movement keep the audience enthralled, and although lighting is used to good effect (especially a lot of uplighting to give shadows to Malikoff's face) the lighting changes seem rather jarring at times (a little more crossfading rather than fade out fade in would have been better).
Despite the lighting distraction, this is a great piece of "storytelling" theatre, and if it is being performed near you, go and see it :)
Canned Hamlet - Sound & Fury
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three comedians from Los Angeles (who didn't vote for Bush, so they tell us) have made a name of themselves doing "Fakespeare". As you would guess, Canned Hamlet is a comedic retelling of Hamlet, and as I'm fairly fond of Shakespeare parodies, I expected to enjoy this as well.
Richard, Phil and Shelby were chatting to the audience while they were waiting in line, and also a fair amount before the show began (taking photos, telling dirty limericks & jokes) until all was settled and the show began.
Of course, with three men playing all the roles, not everything can be done well, but they had scripted this fairly well. Characterisations included Ophelia as if she was a guest on Oprah (talk to the hand, girlfriend), Polonius as a grouchy old Billy Connolly sound-alike, Hamlet's best friend Fellatio, and a bit of audience participation as well - two hapless souls were dragged out to be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, reading from prompt cards... including certain lines which made these poor victims break down in tears of laughter before actually getting the nerve to read them out loud so everyone else could get the joke. Laertes was also an audience member, dragged out for the final scene to have a sword fight with Hamlet...
The Hamlet/Gertrude/Polonius-behind-the-curtains scene was given in a movie genre - which the audience got to pick. We had "Spaghetti Western", which involved a lot of imaginary double saloon doors, and Phil coming in and being an impromptu tumbleweed, one of the funniest moments of the performance!
In amongst this were some great parodies and references to a bunch of 80's songs, Keanu Reeves, and "To be or not to be" in the style of a popular movie/musical (why spoil the fun by telling you?)
My only gripe is the fact that parts which were scripted to look improvised were much too obviously scripted... when it probably would have been funnier if either a) they didn't try and pretend to have improvised the scenes or b) they *did* actually improvise. In fact, the bits that *were* improvised quite often were funnier.
All in all, these guys have written a great piece of Fakespeare, with plenty of chuckles and guffaws throughout.
[%sig%]