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One Man Hamlet
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?
2 comments:
Gender-reversed Hamlet? One-man show Hamlet? How about both?
Kate Norris did a one-woman show version of Hamlet titled "Now I am Alone." Reportedly it was an excellent distillation of the play, and the ways she portrayed multiple characters onstage at once sound very creative. I never got to see the show, but she did a workshop at YCTC this summer and briefly discussed some of the things she did in the production.
Interesting. I love what Bhaneja said about experiencing Hamlet. I saw several different versions before actually reading it. Actually, a one-person show would be a fascinating take on the characters' psyches, since they are all one. Sometimes others come across as figments of Hamlet's imagination anyway.
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