fringe: half hour hamlet

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.

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