William the Great from French Canadian company Bête de Cirque isn't quite what I was expecting...
Most of that had to do with the casting... I'm pretty sure only one of the three guys in the image on the right was actually in the show, and the very soon to be King William was played by a local performer, Loki Rickus, who continued his acrobatic career even after an accident put him in a wheel chair.
And I'm not going to lie, he was one of the two best things about the whole show. With the aid of some very severe (but effective) make-up somewhere between Kabuki and a drag queen, he makes William just the right kind of bitch. More than once (actually pretty much any time he was on stage) I found that I was watching Loki and his eye rolls, pursed lips and side-eye when I was supposed to be watching the other performers. But while his performance with the gold hula hoops was great, I did find myself wishing he was going more... mostly because I loved watching him.
The other stand out was the MC... Romuald Solesse. Solesse is a clown in the best sense of the word... he plays with the audience, works magic and as it turns out is actually a lot more buff and athletically gifted than he first appears. But really it's his personality that shines through, whether he's flirting with the audience or doing slapstick on stage, all the way up to his act with one of the girls where he really gets to show off his acrobatic skills.
The other members of the troupe were solid on the Chinese pole, aerial straps and trapeze, but compared to the other circus acts I've seen this year, nothing really stood out as exceptional. Good, yes... exceptional, no.
But Rickus and Solesse are pretty much worth the price of admission.
Between 1858 and 1865 Phineas Nigellus Black was a student at Hogwarts School and Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Some time during this schooling, according to Improv Adelaide's Unplotted Potter, he fell in love with an Irish girl, asked her to dress like a beaver to meet his mother, made the Unbreakable Vow to the self-same mother that one day he would be the headmaster of Hogwarts, was challenged for School President by a girl with a hideous face, convinced her to throw the election in return for Crafternoons (craft afternoons) and was almost the cause of a feud between the heads of Hufflepuff and Slytherin.
Of course given that the whole show was improvised, and the character the show was about was drawn out of a hat by the audience, you'll see a very different show.
So as with all the improv shows I've seen before, the quality really comes down to the cast... and there were more than a few faces I remember from previous improv shows... Jarrad and Eden from Death Comes At The End, (Jarrad playing the title role of Phineas) plus Curtis and Kendra from the Dungeons and Dragons and Monopoly based shows. I feel like I've seen the woman who played Phineas's mother in one of the shows, but I never heard her name clearly.
All the players were excellent though... but I especially loved Kendra's turn as the Slytherin head of house and as referenced above the woman who played the mother. Also, full props go to Jarrad for keeping the character of Phineas alive throughout.
Actually there weren't any dud performances... everyone was definitely on top of their game and while there are always moments where the story either jumps screaming off the rails or hits a wall in any improv show, the cast were all remarkably good at either cutting to another scene or bailing each other out when it all fell apart.
It just feel like we were getting into the meat of the story when we suddenly had the lights go down again and it was all over with. But really that just means that the time flew by and the story was pretty damn engaging.
But if you're a Harry Potter fan, this is definitely a show to see.
Duckie is Le Gateau Chocolat's show for kids... or anyone who has ever been a kid. Especially those of us who have ever been told that we don't fit in, we're not like everyone else, we're somehow wrong because we're different.
I was that kid... I was at various points too sissy, too fat, too loud, too strange.
So when I say that Duckie connected straight to that 5, 7 or 10 year old kid in me, I mean that it totally bypassed all the parts of me that are rational and logical and revel in my strangeness and not being the same as all the "normals", and hit me directly in the emotions.
Le Gateau had me from the first moments of the show though, partly I think because while I've seen him numerous times, he's always been that larger than life Chocolat character, the super confident, ultra polished persona that is so engaging to watch. But here as Duckie he enters seemingly sad and dejected... and it really got to me.
But the joy arrives fairly quickly courtesy of Chocolat's beautifully mellifluous voice as he sings Disney songs, musicals, slightly altered pop songs and the like.
And as Duckie visits the animals of a circus to try and find where he belongs, Le Gateau takes on the role of each of the animals... a lion (my favourite, and not just because he came into the audience and gave me head scritches with his lion claws), a flamingo, an elephant and a little mouse, all brought to life with whatever Duckie can find in his suitcase.
I will admit that there was a point where I got quite teary when Duckie was at his lowest, just before the really lovely finale where he finally finds his place.
If there was a downside to the show it was in the pre-recorded audio... there was something out of whack with the sound system which made quite a bit of the story difficult to hear or understand (and I don't think it was because of the Clipsal cars or helicopter buzzing around outside). I got most of it, but it was often a bit of a struggle.
I do hope that the kids in the audience understood what the message was though or that their adults were paying enough attention to discuss it with them later.
I will say that watching Le Gateau interact with a number of the kids after the show was beautiful. And we were also fortunate enough to get to chat with him for a while (and get some very lovely, if sweaty, hugs... he gives good hugs)... and yes, I may have gotten all choked up trying to thank him for the show.
Because for any of us who were ever just an ugly duckling and never got to be a swan, finding other ducklings to share that with and knowing that sometimes it's okay just to be a duckling, is very important.
On the reasonably short list of things I will be glad of when the Fringe is over is making a concerted effort to get to bed before midnight most days. This pretty much informs what the rest of my week was like... varying degrees of self inflicted sleep deprivation. Especially on Thursday/Friday when I went to bed at 2am and woke up at 5am...
Last Sunday I mostly pottered around the house in the morning, putting things in the places they're supposed to be, including putting up the first set of Command hooks so that I could hang the Burger Theory artwork over the dining table. First artwork I've hung that doesn't rely on existing hooks. This also included getting rid of all the excess crap on the dining table.
I still haven't completely unpacked all the tchotchkes, and the PS4 is still sitting in its box in front of the TV unit, looking wistfully at the spot it should be in. Yes, little Playstation... soon, I promise. But there does feel like there's a little bit of momentum.
Oh, and I don't think I mentioned... I got an email saying they were coming to do a rental inspection next Wednesday. No I got this on the first of March, so I kind of think I should check my rental agreement information about how much notice they're actually supposed to give me... I'm guessing it should be more than ten days. I say should as in, fuck you, give me at least two weeks.
This also means that I need to spend a portion of tomorrow doing some degree of cleaning. I'm not going to lose my mind doing a ton of cleaning, I mean I only moved in a month ago... oh, and yeah, I've been here a month now. Annoyingly the inspection is on a Wednesday, Tuesdays were bad enough at the old place, but Wednesday means that I have to keep everything tidy for two and a bit days, I mean anything could happen in two and a bit days.
I'm not going to stress about all the stuff that's not in it's permanent home though... fuck it, if they want to inspect for the first time inside a month they can deal with the generalised insanity of my life.
Speaking of generalised insanity... work is actually not too bad at present, however I know that's because the other half of the Nut House is finalising a major part of their project and once they do, the work will naturally flow over to me and my team. So yay for that. Without an actual yay.
And is it wrong that I'm actually kind of happy that Newbie's work bestie, who she knows from way back in the day, is leaving soon for a job somewhere else, so a) I won't need to hear their mostly mind-numbing conversations, but b) Newbie might actually concentrate on work a little more.
We did all lose our minds a little bit at the end of the week though and there were many a conversation about movies and comic books and whatnot... and then Friday it wasn't helped by the fact that there were more people away than there were at work.
Otherwise it was three nights at home and two nights with Fringe shows... not that I did anything overly productive on the nights at home.
Today I was still a little lagged from the lack of sleep earlier in the week, but when I finally rolled out of bed I managed to change my bedding and have a shower before Ma arrived... I had intended to also attack the pile of dishes in my sink, but never got time. I also tried to suck some of the cooler air outside into the apartment before the day got too stupidly hot with varying degrees of success.
We may also have found our replacement check out girlie at the new supermarket... she's not as sweet and bubbly as the previous one but she does use her brain while packing, which is one up on the previous three.
From there it was all about the shopping... while I didn't have any specific items in mind, I wanted to look in Target, Big W and Kmart, since they're not all that far away on Unley Road, Goodwood Road and Anzac Highway, and while we've been to all of them in the past, they're now officially my closest branches.
But first I had to stop at the post office and pick up my Crumpler bag which got delivered on Thursday. I was very relieved to hear that they're actually open on Saturday mornings, which should make my life a whole lot easier.
Then it was off to Target, mostly to look at clothes and shoes... and I came away with two pairs of shorts and two pairs of thongs to replace the two pairs I have that regularly try to eat my feet, all for under $60. It is kind of a tiny Target store though... so small in fact that the fitting rooms are unisex. Not the individual rooms, obviously, but you know what I mean. But if I need giant Target, we can go into the city, for more generalised stuff, this will do.
Next up Big W, where I had even less of an idea what I wanted to look at, and ended up wandering around the menswear section while Ma was looking for clothes for herself. I didn't really see anything (other than lovely soft fleece pyjama bottoms that probably wouldn't have fit me and accidentally following a dude with a great butt... we were going in the same direction, leave me alone) there, but wandered over to the DVD section and found Teen Wolf Season 4 for 30% off... but then I couldn't remember where I was actually up to with the DVDs, so I didn't buy it. I will probably go back tomorrow and grab it though, since it turns out I don't have it already.
What I did buy was the new book by "young adult" author Will Kostakis... mostly because he appeared in the news this week after a speaking engagement at a (Christian) school was cancelled after he came out as gay. I mean, part of me just thought "well, dur... of course they're going to cancel" but it was more that he had already spoken at that school previously and they were happy to have him come back and do the same speech about his previous book, just not to talk about the new book.
So I decided that going and buying the books (and I'll admit, I did read an extract of one of them and it sounds interesting) was a nice way to kick intolerance in the balls, especially since if they hadn't made a thing about it I would never have even heard of the author let alone his books.
I also grabbed a few bits and pieces for the apartment, nothing major though.
Last up was Kmart, and by this point we only had limited time to have a wander before an afternoon Fringe show. But I grabbed a couple of things, most notably a dish rack which I don't completely love, but which works better in the space I have than the pointless board I bought from IKEA.
On the way back we stopped off at Haighs briefly, because chocolate.
Then it was a case of dropping everything off and heading into the city.
Later
For the second week running we managed to get a park outside of the hidden multistory for nothing instead of having to park inside and then headed to the Garden.
After the show we wandered down to Burger Theory and had the very, very tasty Hallouminiti burger...
We then ran two quick errands, one pointless, one not, before we staggered back to the car in the heat and drove back to my place to soak up all the lovely aircon.
I managed to wash all the dishes while we were just hanging around waiting for it to be time to head back into town.
Then we both got changed and headed off to find some food.
Even later still
I miss the old days, and by the old days I mean a month ago when I could just walk down the road from my house and have all the possible food choices laid out for me, and not have them full of people, because this is North Adelaide.
Sadly this is no longer North Adelaide, so we headed into the city to try and find somewhere to eat... but time and the fact that it's both Fringe and Clipsal this weekend conspired to mean that literally everybody in Adelaide and surrounding suburbs was on Rundle Street eating all the things.
So we ended up going to the French crepe place on Grenfell Street instead. Now they were tasty and very prettily presented, but when you're charging $16 for one single, solitary crepe, I think that officially comes under the auspices of "having a lend". We will definitely not be going back there again.
Then we headed across the road to Tandanya for the show and I resisted the urge to stab the fedora wearing crazy manchild who was literally pacing side to side muttering to himself while in the queue. Dude, I don't know what your problem is, but stand the fuck still!
Anyway, that was pretty much it really, another excessively long Saturday (only one left this Fringe).
This is the second year running I've been to see Briefs (the third time overall), and both times I've walked out of the tent at the end of the show infinitely happier than when I went in, considerably hoarser from screaming my lungs out, lacking much of the feeling in my hands from continuous clapping and at least 90% hornier.
And like last year, Fez Fa'anana and the boys of Briefs didn't disappoint.
I would have sworn that the show didn't actually go for 90 minutes because the time just flew... it seemed like no sooner had they started than we were screaming and hollering along with the finale (I realise now that last year's show was 2 hours long, so it was actually shorter than I thought it should have been).
Unlike last year where I was sitting off to the side, I had a prime seat, essentially sitting at the end of the catwalk/stage, so I had a perfect view of everything.
There were also some changes to the line-up this year... Captain Kidd has just come back after injury, so his solo segments had been swapped out for other pieces... and Dallas Dellaforce has been, to quote Fez, "voted off the island", in her place was an equally blonde and fishy queen whose name I didn't catch (something beginning with J I think)... but she was suitably fierce.
Evil Hate Monkey, Thomas Worrell and my personal favourite, Louis Biggs, all return doing that voodoo that they do so well.
As much as my heart belongs to Louis, I'm also more than a little in love with Fez. You don't ever fuck with Fez though... as one gentleman, who was fiddling with his phone after Fez gave explicit instructions to put phones away, found out to his chagrin. But Fez is a brilliant, funny, warm and naughty diva... and his (I honestly keep wanting to refer to Fez as a she, like you do with drag queens, even the ones with beards, so my pronouns might slip a little) magic act is adorable and has brilliant comic timing and no small amount of skill.
But as I said... my heart (and parts further south) belong to Louis (that's him just to the right of Fez in the photo)... from the moment I bought a ton of raffle tickets off him (and didn't win the opportunity to do a tequila shot of his well stuffed underwear clad body... #jealous), to his schoolboy routine with the Rubix cube, yoyo and crocheted surprise to his turn as one of the tumbling dogs, to the new act with, I think, Lachlan as skipping, tumbling bogans... all the way through to the finale and the backless/thong sequinned number that he wears oh so well. But beyond the body... and it's an impressive body, it's his naughty, bubbly, exuberant personality that won my heart yet again.
The other new act is the new drag queen, and while she was good, and from a distance a totally convincing woman... just like last time, it was kind of my least favourite part of the show. The number was visually interesting,
Monkey was as crazed and inappropriate as I remember... but I don't know if I realised last time how incredibly skilled he was, particularly when he's jumping up and down on pointe in ballet shoes. That takes some serious skill, and some tough feet.
I also ended up being his banana humping victim during the ballet number, which I suspected might happen, but the reality of watching the little, essentially naked, ball of fur and energy fix you with his gaze, stand on you and thrust his sequinned codpiece in your face is entirely something else.
The two most magical acts of the evening were both courtesy of Thomas... first he gave a breathtaking performance on the silks... not I've seen a lot of aerial work this year, but this is the first time it's actually been on silks... and it really is beautiful to watch, especially when it's as stunningly lit as this was and as expertly done. Then he returned at the end to do a routine on the aerial hoop... and put his contortionist skills to excellent use.
There's a particular move that he does where the hoop is spinning and he's spinning but had one foot on the floor... it's quite honestly my favourite move of the routine, if not the night... it's just amazing.
That's the thing about Briefs though, while they don't take the show as a whole seriously and feed that energy and sense of fun back to the audience in a big, bad way... everybody does everything as well as they possibly can. Everybody is at the top of their respective games and they make you WANT to hoot and holler and cheer and clap until your hands are still tingly over two hours after the show has finished.
Going in Undertone sounded like it might be something like Cadence from last year's Fringe... however it turns out to be much more circus than it was about the sounds.
Don't get me wrong, the sounds were there, but really with the exception of three sections they didn't feel like they were featured as strongly as they could have been.
Undertone is an interesting circus act though.
Performers Alyssa Moore, Tomek Wiwatowski, Avan Whaite and Thomas McDonald have put together an entertaining show, but there was just something about it that didn't quite hit the level I was expecting.
It may just have been that the transitions between various sequences weren't as smooth or as sharp (weirdly enough, occasionally both) as they've been in other things I've seen.
And while the three sequences where McDonald strips down to his black Bonds trunks and then gets dressed as a table tennis pro were fun and quirky (even if he wasn't the one I really wanted to see strip down) they did have a tendency to make the whole show grind to a halt while he got undressed and then dressed again. I also feel like the idea didn't quite go far enough at times. But even having said that it was incredibly entertaining.
Most impressive was Wiwatowski on the aerial straps, and not just because he was my favourite (and gorgeous)... he's the third performer we've seen on the straps this year and he was the first one who did these wonderfully controlled descents. The death drop stuff that other people was great, but the control it takes to do that stuff slowly is incredible.
Likewise McDonald on the corde lisse and Whaite (all of them really, but Whaite most of all) on the pole at the end were amazing, especially when they made hanging on with one arm and the pressure of an leg enough to keep them in place so that they were hanging upside down seemingly floating and appearing to sit next to the pole respectively.
There are some lovely moments of personality, and not just in the table tennis sequences... the juggling sequence springs to mind.
It's also the first circus act I've been to where I got hit squarely in the face with a ping pong ball hit incredibly hard by McDonald... I mean it was hard, but it's also a ping pong ball, so it stung briefly and then I got over it. Plus it was totally an accident, and he came and kissed it better, so I'm not overly complaining.
While it's not the most mindblowing circus act I've ever seen, it had a number of positive elements and it's worth a look.
In My Life as a Gay Bum, Peter Baecker performing under the pseudonym (or possibly Grindr/hookup app handle) nick42berlin, failed on three different fronts when doing a show about gay sex... he didn't make it funny, titillating or interesting.
I'd thankfully read a few reviews beforehand, so I not only knew what I was getting into, but I'd also made sure to go and see a much better show earlier in the night. But it really says something about a Fringe show when there are only five people in the audience and two of them walk out within the first ten minutes.
The only reason I stuck around was that sense of morbid curiosity to see not only whether or not he could chase off the other two straight folks, but also how bad it was going to get and where the hell he was going with this absolute self-involved train wreck of a show.
I also think that part of the reason Baecker chose to set the show in a literal "dark room" was so that he didn't see the looks of panic, pity or quizzical contempt the audience undoubtedly have on their faces at various points.
The show was supposed to cover "the many strange, funny and weird moments" (strange I'll give you, the other two, not so much) Baecker experienced in "darkrooms, parks, toilets, cars and 100 more places" (and by 100, I'm guessing he means about two, people's houses and sex clubs... in fact cars and toilets really weren't mentioned, at least not that I remember), but what it felt like at a certain point was the three remaining audience members were gratifying Baecker's fetish for talking about his sex life in a public arena and being paid for it. It was like we were part of a very XXX rated version of the TV show My Crazy Obsession, where the obsession in question was talking about all the cock you've sucked. But doing it in a way that isn't going to arouse anyone or make them the least bit interested in your story.
I'm not even sure that this show would work playing to a totally gay
audience... more than once I found myself thinking, "yes, and... what's your point, we've all been slutty at one point or another".
This
show seems like it was totally devised to first and foremostly pump up Baecker's ego, but other than that to both frighten a straight
audience and show them how "dirty" the gays are. I'm not sure why exactly he thought that was a good idea, but it seemed fairly evident, and somewhat telling, given that he spent much more time directing his stories to the presumably straight guy and girl (mostly the girl) on the other side of the room, than to me, the solo male.
Baecker's Austrian origins also works against him... between his occasionally repetitious or unimaginative English vocabulary (I hope he's much more descriptive in his native language) and his accent (I'm sorry, but the Austrian/German accents are amongst the least sexy in Europe, even if the German people specifically are among the kinkiest), it just felt like we were either part of his sex addiction therapy or victims of a bizarre hijacking.
Actually, it felt like exactly what it was... really, really bad performance art, delivered by an uninteresting and unskilled performer.
There was so much potential here, and in the hands of somebody who can actually give the material life, it could have been funny or at the very least interesting, or better yet, touching... Baecker doesn't manage any of those things beyond eliciting the occasional uncomfortable or pitying chuckle.
It also didn't help that he chose to perform in an essentially black room wearing all black clothing, so the only thing you could see were his calves, his face depending on whether he moved into the meagre light (which, if you're going to do a "dark room" cut the light by at least 75% and do it properly) and the microphone power light (why the hell he even needed a microphone I have no idea, the room is small, the audience is close, just speak unplugged, or spring for an headset mike). You're in a "dark room", perform shirtless or in your underwear or in just a towel, or heaven forbid, even perform naked (although in no way did Baecker look anything like the photo he used in the poster) provided you warn the audience beforehand.
And speaking of his microphone, the person I feel sorriest for is his poor sound tech, who presumably has had to sit through this car accident over and over again. Once is definitely more than enough.
Let's get this out in the open right away... Fag/Stag from The Last Great Hunt is a brilliant piece of theatre.
And it's one I nearly missed. It had been on one of my early lists, but got cut somewhere down the line. Thankfully at the eleventh hour (literally their last show), I decided to take a punt and go see it.
I'm so glad that I did.
Written and performed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler (on the right, above) as Jimmy, the fag half of the title, and Chris Isaacs (on the left) as Corgan, the stag half, Fag/Stag takes on the idea that there are two sides to every story but the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It's presented as two parallel and overlapping monologues, told by switching between Fowler and Isaacs as they sit on either side of the stage and talk directly to the audience. Side by side, but separated, which sums up the show as a whole really.
The setting is simple, just two stools, two tables, two phones, two drinks and two video game controllers... and two characters who are so intensely real.
Both performers are incredibly talented and handle the dialogue and character with consummate skill. I did gravitate more towards Fowler as Jimmy, partly because he's so damn cute and as a fellow fag I identified a little more with his experiences.
It's especially apparent how skilfully they handle the material in those moments where they ramp things up to a heightened state of emotion... but they're great at the myriad of tiny, subtle moments too. It's totally worth watching the face of the other performer when one of them is talking to see those almost throw away moments of character, there never feels like a moment when they're not fully present. One of the most affecting scenes was one where Fowler just slowly starts to raise one arm while telling his story, and the movement has such incredible power because of what it represents it had me leaning forward to ensure I didn't miss a single moment.
And those moments when they lock eyes with audience members, not long enough to be uncomfortable but enough to really allow us to connect with both character and performer and draw us even further into the story.
The writing is exceptionally sharp and funny and touching and just incredibly real. It covers so many touchstones about just being a guy, both good and bad. And about relationships between guys, but specifically about those singular relationships that gay men have with straight men and, at the end of the day, no matter how close we are, the fact that we all see the world through our own unique lens.
If I had any quibbles, it's a very minor one... I couldn't help feeling that the geographic references, which are uniquely Perth, may not resonate with audiences in other cities. I felt like there was additional weight to those locations that, as someone not familiar with the geography, I was missing out on. And maybe there's no getting around that... those locations may not have a parallel in other states.
However I think that was more about me wanting to wring every last possible ounce out of the exceptional experience that was Fag/Stag.
This was my fifth time at one of Sound and Fury's shows... I've seen them do fairy tales, Shakespeare (twice) and Hitchcock... and this time they took on the entire fantasy genre with Lord of the Thrones (but mostly Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones to be honest).
As with the previous shows, knowing the material they're spoofing helps, but isn't essential.
And this time Richard, Patrick and Ryan had a little help... in the role of the hero, Frogurt Snark, they enlisted young Steve (I think) from the audience, to mime along with prerecorded dialogue and general not have any idea what was going on. As a ring-in he wasn't too bad... whether or not he was chosen for his general level of geekness I don't know... but he did seem to fit nicely into the role of a Hobbit.
They also weren't in the same location as previous years, they've swapped the little red tent at Gluttony for the cafe at Tandanya... an interesting swap, but perhaps not one that suited their particular on-stage, off-stage quick change style perfectly, especially with only one entrance/exit to and from the stage.
It also meant that the usual preshow banter felt different, and given that there were more people in the crowd than I think I've previously seen at one of their shows (I'm guessing the Thrones reference drew a lot more people than the previous shows would have, just because of the subject matter), it seemed more about making sure everybody had a seat.
But I digress.
The show itself lived up to the level of insanity that we've come to expect from Sound and Fury, and I genuinely walked out of the venue with a face that hurt from laughing too much.
Given that they show is newer and has a different well to draw from, it felt like there were more jokes from a wider pop culture theme than we've seen before... which isn't a criticism, one of my favourite jokes was a reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
They have in no way lost that improvisational feeling that often creeps in... I always assume there's a script that at a certain point just says "Patrick will make stuff up here" or "vamping by all here as required". And I love when it throws one of the others off, usually Richard.
We also got a musical number from Ryan this time around... he's performing a solo show, Beers About Songs this year as well as the Sound and Fury show (in fact they're all doing an additional show, Patrick has Half Hour Hamlet and Richard is running one of the Escape Rooms... although I'm not completely sure which one)... so part way through we got a lovely little dirty ditty where the audience got to sing along to the chorus, and we all got louder and more into it on every repetition.
I won't say it's my favourite of their shows (my heart will always belong to Hamlet and Juliet), but it's still a damn good time and I laughed myself silly.
Oh, and Patrick, those black tights aren't as tight/revealing as you seem to think they are... you can totally relax.
Patrick Hercamp is one third of one of my favourite Fringe acts, Sound and Fury, and for the purposes of his first solo show, Half Hour Hamlet, is our guide through Shakespeare's Danish play.
But he's not Hamlet... no, that duty fell to young Conner from the audience, who Hercamp then directed much of the ensuing explanation/play to.
And there's a job for the audience too... Phrases to say when anybody dies, when poison is mentioned, when everybody is blissfully happy (this only happened twice I think) and when "your mother kisses your sister" (the general ewwww noise). They're good tricks for audience involvement, but at a certain point the audience kind of forgot what the sound bites were for different things.
I'm not completely sure either trick was needed to be honest, Hercamp is an energetic performer and his rapid fire delivery of a modern explanation/retelling of Shakespeare's story seems to work best without interruption... of course they do allow him to take a breath every now and again.
At only thirty minutes it's a tight show but never feels overly rushed, but rather is carried along by Hercamp's boundless enthusiasm and energy. The general insanity is perhaps not as high as when he's part of Sound and Fury, but then he is carrying the whole show, sans set or props or anything... not even a skull for Yorrick.
Whether you know Hamlet, love Hamlet or are largely ambivalent to Hamlet, Half Hour Hamlet is thirty minutes well spent.
