Upcoming: World's Fastest Hamlet, Austin Shakespeare at Republic Square Park, May 10

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Austin Parks Foundation &

present, again,

The World's Fastest Hamlet

Tuesday, May 10 at 7 p.m.

in Republic Square Park, 422 Guadalupe

Free to the public.

Austin Parks Foundation presents Austin Shakespeare's version of The World's Fastest Hamlet, Tuesday, May 10 at 7 pm in Republic Square Park. This family friendly performance sees a troupe of Shakespearean actors perform Hamlet in 20 minutes. And that's just the beginning, as they see just how fast they can go. Hilarity is guaranteed, yet the beauty of Shakespeare shines through.

The World's Fastest Hamlet, Austin Shakespeare at First Night Austin, December 31

Austin Shakespeare winked at the bard and happily laughed at itself with The World's Fastest Hamlet, a twenty-minute show given its second (annual?) staging at First Night Austin, the December 31 downtown festival.

Last year the same four-actor cast performed twice under the First Street Bridge during a bright, mild afternoon. This year they briefly took the music stage at City Hall Plaza at 6:15 p.m. as dark fell and the First Night parade unwound behind them along the lake front.

The joke is one of Ultimate Compression. When you take a great and renowned three-hour tragedy and metaphorically throw it into a car-crusher, only the crazy survives. The script is built of familiar patches of dialogue, all in their proper order, but without the emotional depth or imagery of the tragic. Those who know and love that vigorous meditation on treachery, guilt, responsibility, love, friendship, rank, decision and mortality are left with only the "vigorous" part of it. And what could be more absurd?

So this guy in a black beret is called up on the ramparts for a dialogue with a ghost, puts on an antic disposition, repudiates his girlfriend, threatens his uncle king and aunt mother, skewers a counselor, battles pirates, gets back to contemplate a skull and encounter the unexpected funeral of the girlfriend, accepts a friendly fencing match and winds up surrounded by corpses before becoming one himself. What?? And this, they say, is probably the greatest literature ever written in English??

Imagine doing all that at breakneck speed with four actors popping out from behind a flimsy screen, waving props like a flimsy "Casper the ghost" cut-out and using the wildest out-in-the-saloon melodramatic style.

It's a blast, and it's all the funnier when you recognize familiar Austin Shakespearians. ALT has reviewed most of them.

Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: World's Fastest Hamlet!, Austin Shakespeare at First Night, CIty Hall Stage

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Austin Shakespeare at FIRST NIGHT AUSTIN, City Hall Stage at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, December 31

The World's Fastest Hamlet FREE

Austin Shakespeare reprises its popular production of The World's Fastest Hamlet on New Year's Eve as part of Austin's First Night. We are honored to be presenting on the City Hall Stage at 6:15 pm. Don't miss this wonderful piece that turns Shakespeare's most famous tragedy into a delightful comedy for the whole family. starring Ted Meredith of Esther's Follies, Gwen Kelso, Robert Deike and Justin Scalise as Hamlet. Directed by Beth Burns.

Upcoming: Hamlet, City Theatre, October 22 -

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, October 26

UPDATE: Article by Sara Pressley in the Daily Texan, October 21: Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' Gets Modern Twist at Local Venue

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Hamlet

City Theatre, October 22 - November 15
After show talk-backs October 25 and November 8.

A murdered king. A usurped kingdom. A promise of revenge. Returning to court to find his father murdered and his mother remarried, the young and melancholy Dane faces his most terrible dilemma between duty and doubt, madness and mistrust, and “murder most foul.”

[photo by Jordy Wagoner, Daily Texan]
An undisputed masterpiece of world theatre, William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy of passion, corruption and revenge has captivated audiences for more than four hundred years and remains as relevant and urgent as ever.

With Aaron Black, Collin Bjork, McArthur Moore, Christy Smith, and Tim Brown and featuring the live music ensemble orchestra of Mother Falcon.

Tickets $15 - $20. Guaranteed reserve $25. Thursdays pay what you can. Group and student discounts. www.citytheatreaustin.org

For reservations, call 512-524-2870 or e-mail info@citytheatreaustin.org.

The City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D. – east corner of Airport Blvd. and 38½ Street.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

World's Fastest Hamlet and Heron & Crane, December 31

Sometimes you master the venue and other times the venue masters you.

We went to downtown Austin on the afternoon of the First Night celebrations, particularly to check out the theatre events advertised for the HBMG Foundation stage in the park just under the south end of the First Street Bridge.

Except that there was no stage there. HBMG certainly must have encouraged and subsidized the schedule of events for that locale, but the participants were left to define a playing space as best they could.

That didn’t much bother the Capoeira group, who set up their drums and percussion on the sidewalk and spent a cheery, thumping half-hour or so demonstrating that graceful, dance-like martial art from Brazil. They gathered a good crowd. Some folks watched from the bridge railings, above, and others stood or sat on the curbside.

The second spot, at 3:30, was reserved for Austin Shakespeare’s World’s Fastest Hamlet. They had chosen to set up beneath the bridge itself, using the road as the playing space and encouraging spectators to seat themselves next to it.

They had done their homework – not only did they plant a thicket of microphones, but they had also secured professional stage lighting up under the girders of the bridge.

A glib and cheery Master of Ceremonies took the microphone as soon as the Capoeira group finished. Many of the spectators attracted to the martial arts display good naturedly strolled the 20 or 30 feet over to the performance space. Quite a few of us plopped our rears down in the fine dirt next to the street, and others gathered on the incline beneath the bridge.

Hamlet done in fifteen minutes can be played only as wild street farce, particularly since the company consisted of only four players for all parts. Director Beth Burns discharged them at the august edifice of the play like a load of Silly Putty, and they were all over the place.


(Left to right: Gwen Kelso animating the ghost and playing female parts, Ted Meredith as Shakespeare and others, Justin Scalise as Hamlet, and Robert Deike as Horatio, Polonius and Laertes).

This was a very silly and very funny version of Hamlet, played at maximum volume and picked up very well by the sound system. The theatrical lighting dispelled the shadows normally lurking under the bridge in mid-afternoon. The show occurred relatively early in the First Night program, so there was little noise from other activities in the parks.

It was all clowning, made even more funny because the players were quoting verbatim from Shakespeare’s revered text. Justin Scalise put no darkness in this Hamlet; he was as animated and silly as a Road Runner cartoon.

Some of my favorite moments

The opening scene, with guards on the ramparts:

(The ghost that pops up next to the moon turns out to be a puppet styled after the “Ghostbusters” emblem.)

Hamlet and Polonius: “Words, words, words!”

Hamlet confronts mom Gertrude in her chambers:


Claudius decides that Hamlet must to England after the killing of Polonius:

And of course, the finale:

Once they’d finished, to cheers from the audience, our players over-topped themselves by doing a two-minute Hamlet, followed by a ten-second Hamlet.

Justin Scalise is without doubt a Shakespeare buff. He recently played a fine Feste the clown in Twelfth Night at the Scottish Rite Theatre, and he delivered some more fractured Shakespeare at Frontera Fest (he plays Hamlet in the “O Feel Ya!” parody, available on YouTube). And the narrowsheet passed out at this show promises “for those interested in more Hamlet, there will be a fall production featuring some of Austin’s finest actors. For information, inquire a jscalise@hotmail.com.”

The following act was a no-show, and the crowd dissolved quickly. We strolled the park, enjoyed the gathering crowds and examined the towering wooden clock that was to be burned just hours later. On the north side of Lady Bird Lake, someone had set up a powerful sound system and was inviting passersby to express their New Year's wishes. The result was a loud, perfectly audible sequence of banalities that did not stop for the rest of the time we were there.

The sun had gone lower in the sky, sending broad yellow shafts of light across the dusty park. When we came back in half an hour to the HBMG venue, the DA! Theatre Collective was setting up for their touring children’s show, Heron & Crane.


At the 4:30 showtime there was almost no audience. The DA! players had set up on the road. Almost without exception the people who showed up for the presentation elected to sit on the incline, behind a dirt strip about 50 feet wide. I joined them, with the perspective shown above. One man broke the pattern and plumped his rear down in the dirt just by the stage; I went and joined him. Then I stood up for a moment and looked back. The perspective from there shows the great divide between stage and public.


The players from the DA! Collective had an inadequate sound system, which was their primary additional disadvantage; in addition, as their audience strained to hear them, the idiot chatter booming across the lake continually interrupted their lines.

Occasional joggers and bikers along the roadway diverted across the dirt, and at times sculling races crossed dramatically from far, far stage right to far, far stage left.

Heron & Crane is a charming, whimsical two-character play, based on a Russian folk tale. In these circumstances it was a beautiful gem cast onto a sandpile.

As a start to the participatory session, the actors encourage the audience to make the sounds of wind, bubbles, frogs, bumblebees, and storms.

The story is simple: Michelle Brandt is Heron, a sweet but lonely bird living by a pond; Jude Hickey arrives as Crane, the boisterous, bumbling newcomer to the neighborhood. The story runs through the course of a year, as Heron and Crane discover one another, play, quarrel, dance, and make up. The wind, bubbles, frogs, bumblebees and storms periodically occur, to the delight of the spectators. The actors danced to recorded music at several points in the action.

Language is simple; concepts are easy for children to grasp as the two friends compete, play, differ and reconcile. Brandt and Hickey do lovely bird struts. (Click on images to enlarge.)

This is a play written for close-up participation. Jude Hickey gave us the gosh-gee-whiz attitude and throwaway energy of a clever four-year-old, and Michelle Brandt was as cheery and attractive as any child's very best friend. But after a cranky, nonsensical argument over pumpkin carving, as the play's year draws to a close the friends are not speaking.

Moderator Kirk German then engages children directly, asking what the two bird friends might do to overcome their difficulties. ("Say you're sorry!" "Play together -- have a flying race!")

The actors carry out the audience's suggestions and bring their bird year to a cheerful, successful close.

The venue was a disaster for this delicate, friendly presentation, which in the comfortable and non-distracting confines of a classroom or activity hall must awaken wonder and great enthusiasm with its target audience. Make-believe is natural and spontaneous for the very young, and the lessons in this simple morality play are easy to grasp. And anyone with an ounce of wonder left in his or her spirit would be pleased to make the acquaintance of such engaging characters as these.


That was certainly the opinion of the two tiny youngsters who rushed the stage after the conclusion of the play.

Upcoming: World's Fastest Hamlet and Heron & Crane at Austin's First Night, December 31

The downtown festivities for the afternoon and evening of December 31, known as "First Night," include at least two theatre events of interest: Austin Shakespeare offers The World's Fastest Hamlet at 3:30 and 6:00 and DA! Theatre Collective offers its children's piece Heron & Crane at 4:30.

Both are at the HBMG stage, located on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake close to the First Street Bridge:

HBMG activities start with a 3 p.m. demonstration of the Brazilian martial art of Capoeria. Full schedule there :

Click here for the full First Night program, in .pdf.