Yesterday we had a gender-reversed Hamlet, so today how about a one-man show?

In describing his one-man version of Hamlet, Bhaneja said: “For many of us, our most powerful experience with the play Hamlet occurred on our first reading of it — outside of the theatre ­— where we, alone, had to conjure up the setting, characters and drama. With this production, the audience is guided through the actual text, almost in the way an ancient storyteller might do, where the actor/storyteller provides an outline of a character upon which the viewer extrapolates.”

With the firm understanding that this is pretty far-afield from going to see a Shakespeare show, I think it would be quite interesting. When I tell my kids one of the plays, I’m basically the one-man storyteller. And isn’t a teacher doing the same thing, for a larger audience? So why not put the storyteller on the stage and have him speak to as many people as will sit for the show?

Helen Mirren just did it for Prospera in Taymor’s Tempest, so why can’t Yvonne Flack do the same with The Suffragette Hamlet, her own “truly new play” that gives her a chance to take on what she considers to be “every classical actor’s dream, and secretly, every actress’s.”

I just never seriously thought I would be able to take on the role until [director Darcie Flansburg] approached me with the idea of a reverse-gender Hamlet.

What boggles my mind is that these students of their art – Ms. Flack’s “entire dissertation is based around non-Western adaptations of the play” – seem not at all interested in mentioning Sarah Bernhardt, the legendary actress who portrayed Hamlet 100 years ago. Does this woman truly believe that a woman can’t play a man’s role?
NOTE – Do NOT miss that Sarah Bernhardt link, where we actually dug up some extraordinarily rare footage of Ms Bernhardt’s fight scene with Laertes, in 1899! How often do you get to see THAT?

Twitter keeps its finger on the pulse of what’s important these days by publishing Top Trends. What are people talking about with the most urgency? Sometimes it’s obvious and newsworthy, like Egypt or Tunisia. Other times it’s silly like #IfYouOnlyKnew or #ICantDateYou.

Shakespeare can do trendy. Oh, yes. And silly! With that I give you the Shakespeare version of #ICantDateYou:

“I can’t date you because you’re married to my brother. Who I just poisoned. And honestly your son annoys me.” -Claudius

“I can’t date you, I’m not the man you think I am. In more ways than one.” -Viola

“I can’t date you, you’re like seriously the only other human being besides my dad that I’ve seen in my entire life.”  -Miranda 

“I can’t date you, you’re my ancient’s wife and you’ll just want me to promote him or something.” -Othello

“I can’t date you, your insanely jealous husband already thinks I knocked you up.”  -Polixenes

“I can’t date you, even though I am madly in love with you and did follow you into the forest. Because now that you’re actually paying attention to me you’re kinda creeping me out.” -Helena

“I can’t date you, you look like an ass.” -Titania

“I can’t date you, my wife would kill me. And you. And any witnesses.” -Macbeth

“I can’t date you, I’m Prince of Denmark and my will is not my own.  Plus I’ve kinda got a thing for my mom…. what the… who wrote this? Who the hell is Freud?” -Hamlet

“I can’t date you, you’re not Jewish and my dad would freak. Oh, what the heck, let’s do it.”  -Jessica (Shylock’s daughter)

Sometimes the funniest stuff comes and goes in the blink of an eye on Twitter, so if you’re not already following ShakespeareGeek (and his partner in crime Bardfilm), what are you waiting for?!

If you read a story (or see a film) and then somebody says, “Did you know that was based on Hamlet?” then what you’ll do is run it back over in your brain and spot all the spots where it wasn’t. Take for example Lion King, which I saw without even considering a Hamlet connection. Where’s the Ophelia character? Polonius? The relationship between Gertrude and Claudius? Some of them are stretched – are Timon and Poomba *really* supposed to be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Or is this a case where they said “Uncle kills father, son avenges” and then just made up the rest?
However – what if somebody tells you to read story X, because it’s based on Hamlet. Then you’ve got a whole different ball game. Such is the case with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. This is not my review of that book, which will come when I finish it. Think of this as the intro material that would have padded my review when I finally did get around to it.
If you know you’re reading a Hamlet story, then every plot device, every new character, you find yourself saying “Who is that supposed to be? What’s happening here?” A grandfather? There’s no grandfather in Hamlet, he must not be relevant. Oh look a random hippie chick? That’s weird. Wonder if she’ll be Ophelia. It’s like a mystery story. When the dad dies – because we all know the dad dies, I hope – you get to sit there and wonder “How did he die? Did the brother do it? Will we learn that the brother did it? What’s the wife’s relationship to the brother?”
Hamlet shows us the dynamics of just about every family relationship – husbands and wives, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, brothers (Claudius and King Hamlet), sisters (Laertes and Ophelia). It would be difficult to tell a family drama/tragedy and not be able to say “Oh, yeah, a little bit like Hamlet.” Rivalry between brothers? A son with an absent father figure and mother issues? Family members who don’t want the daughter to go with the man she chooses? All there.
We already know that this is done ad nauseam with Romeo and Juliet – every “they can’t be together, oh the tragedy!” love story ever written has made the comparison.
But are there others? Does anybody ever write an Othello story, or a Macbeth story?

Not quite sure what to do with this story [first spotted on Reddit.com] about Zombie Hamlet. At first I thought, “Ok, big deal, somebody’s ripping off Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead,” which has been around for over 2 years and I think pretty much started the “zombie Shakespeare” thing.
But then I checked out the IMDB page for kicks. Jason Mewes, the stoner guy from all those Kevin Smith movies? Shelley Long from Cheers? John Amos, the dad from Good Times? June Lockhart, the Lost In Space mom? Does the Zombie part refer to the plot, or the cast? I thought a few of those people were dead!
Then I checked out the director’s page. From the man who brought you Santa With Muscles, ranked in IMDB’s 100 Worst Movies Of All Time comes….Zombie Hamlet. Yeah, that fits.