Sunday, October 28, 2007
Hamlet - Wooster Group - Scott Shepherd
New York Times: "In one of the long pauses between scenes during a recent rehearsal at the Public Theater, Scott Shepherd, who stars as the prince in the Wooster Group’s spin on Shakespeare’s tragedy, cracked a few jokes, practiced some dance moves and rocked out to REO Speedwagon. For an actor about to perform perhaps the most difficult role in the theatrical canon, he appeared disconcertingly at ease — maybe a little bored?"
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3 comments:
sounds cool.
the wooster group has a rep for insanely avante guard theater, so Hamlet done in this fashion sounds fascinating. If nothing else, it will be a testament to the flexibility of theater and the universality of Shakespeare's text, showing the wee little ones why we still recite 400+ year old text. Why it still has merit today. Hamlet's a tough one though. About the actor himself...who the hell commits the entire Great Gatsby and ALL of hamlet to memory? that's some serious dedication, but jesus, it sounds like a lot of headspace unneccessarily cluttered up...good for him tho.
Hamlet being my favorite play, I would definately like to see this. I have seen a number of different versions all with their own little adaptations.
The bit about only pausing at the end of the lines makes a suprisingly huge difference to the production. As is mentioned, counterintuitively it turns the verse back into normal speech. It has a very cool effect that tends to strengthen the production.
In Jed's directing class we talk about this production quite often. While recently in NYC, I was hoping I could sneak into a show, but that didn't really work. Still, it was great to hear people talking about work they had seen from Wooster, and seeing how they bill their shows. Their stuff sounds like it would be interesting to watch, and although not tailored to the tastes of anyone else but their own, I think many could get inspiration out of watching.
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