Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Didi Hopkins


Hello

i wanted to congratulate you all on your magnificent show and performance on saturday at the hackney empire
your piece was hugely enjoyable, highly sophisticated and simple at the same time,
the grommelot/gibberish so perfectly placed in european it sounded so much like something - yet we got it all
the weaving of the plot,  the characters and the staging were brilliant and I wish you could be here longer and do the show again

well done and come again

best wishes

didi hopkins

Saturday, March 19, 2011

An academic reviews the show at University of Warwick

The Bardathon is Pete Kirwan’s academic theatre review blog. This is an experiment in reviewing practice designed to combine the principles of academic reviewing with the immediate reactions of a journalistic format.

The Bardathon review

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Anmol Sagar

Hamlet: The clown prince

I recently went to see Rajat Kapoor’s ‘Hamlet: The clown prince’ at Prithvi. The play, (in gibberish and English as the advet said) was supposedly hilarious. I went in wondering how one could possibly make whiny and serious Hamlet funny….And I came out holding my sides, for they ached from all the laughing I did for 2 hours straight!!

The play has a company of clowns presenting their version of Hamlet along with multiple doses of digressions to share their own lives and personalities. Clowns being clowns, the play is not only funny, it’s filled with contemporary influences which manage to present the classical tragedy with a modern feel.

I was a little stunned when it started…. a clown opened it with something that sounded like a frantic mix of French, English, Chinese and some alien language all at the same time! That’s Gibberish for the untrained and it does take some getting used to. I wasn’t too sure whether the gibberish was really a needed ingredient (others with me felt it added a comical hue), but I thought the play would have been as funny even in just plain English.

 The play was uproariously funny to say the least… the multiple digressions by the clowns where they would totally forget that they are enacting Hamlet were entertaining and the involvement of the audience members into their dialogues was ingenious and extraordinary. The actors were really good… it would take a lot to deliver a flawless 2 hour play. A special mention for the lead actor who played the clowning and the serious parts with great aplomb (His heartfelt speech on the death of Ophelia had me almost in tears!) I personally really liked the clown who played Claudius… he was brilliant in his portrayal of the airheaded disconnected clown and a devious step father to Hamlet at the same time. His impromptu dancing and breaking into songs from Lion king really had me holding my sides. At one time, he also played Hamlet’s dead father’s ghost (who by the way is not allowed to talk… being a ghost and all) where he was trying to, through dumb sharads, explain to the clueless Hamlet what he wants him to do to avenge his death!!

It is a challenge for anyone to present Hamlet in it’s entirely in 2 hours and this play did cut around some of the interlacing stories, but that did not make the story less complete in any way. The play ignored the whole Prince Fortinbras angle as also the betrayal of Rosencratz and Guildenstern… but it added a lot more through the stories of the clowns and their relationships with each other. 

All in all, I was amazed at the creativity and the skill of the cast and the crew of the play and felt that the standing ovation they got at the end was really too little an appreciation!  Hats off to the team and to Rajat Kapoor (who by the way was there at the venue sporting an arty look with a long unruly beard) for a great show!

Anmol Sagar

Review in The Guardian

A strangely written review but I think he liked it. A pity he starts off by saying there's not a lot to like about Hamlet because he's talking about Shakespeare's 4-hour epic, not the '90 minutes of mayhem' that is the Clown's interpretation! The Guardian

Reviews from the performance in Newcastle

Some great reviews from the performance in Newcastle

What's on Stage

The Jouurnal

British Theatre Guide