July 26, 2009

HOLY CRAP!! BAD HAMLET WINS AWARD!!

Bad Hamlet received the audience award for Best Experimental Production in the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival!

Thanks to Sarah, AnnaLaura, Ian, Matt V, John RK, Felipe C, Ty H, Anne N, Anne V, the Fringe organizers and staff, friends, loved ones, supporters, and of course, everyone who came to see it.

Keep your ears open about a future remount!

July 17, 2009

Press love for BAD HAMLET

Trey Graham (CityPaper) raves!
(Glen Weldon, also of the CityPaper, chimes in with his own capsule rave in the comments!)
"A Fringe Must-See..." "tremendous fun..."
"Bottom line? The notion that all the best writing is re-writing gets an admirably lucid, singularly entertaining proof
here." (TG)

"What could easily have come off as an intellectual exercise is given flesh — and not the too too solid kind — by a script that doesn’t merely note the differences between the text, but gets them to comment on one another. Smart, deft and fully realized." (GW)
Chris Klimek (Washington Examiner) lists us as one of the Ten Shows You Won't Want To Miss...
...and then raves in DCist!
"Pass with your best violence," Hamlet challenges Laertes in the play's climactic duel. But that line was, we learn, a replacement for one in the 1603 text that better describes Bad Hamlet: "Pass with your most cunning display." (CK)
Kaysha Gurell (DCist) also raves!
"One solid option, Bad Hamlet, ... is sure to impress you, just as
it did us." (KG)
Jessica Pearson (DCTheatreScene) more or less raves!
"Bad Hamlet is incredibly interesting...
fascinating... powerful and wonderful to watch." (JP)
The Two Hours Traffic blog says nice things!
"This is definitely a must see if you are a Shakespeare junkie like me." (2Hrs)
Nelson Pressley (Washington Post) doesn't hate it!
"The earnestly acted show [isn't] a nuanced consideration of the implications on character and theme -- but that's OK." (NP)
Karen Shod? ("Karen's FYI" posting on DCTheatre Newsgroup)
Well, you can't please everybody...
"Interesting concept marred by amateurish presentation." (KS)
(That's her entire review. She got a press comp to write six words.)

July 2, 2009

BAD HAMLET at the Capital Fringe Festival

The Adequate Players present the World Premiere production of

BAD HAMLET

Adapted and Produced by John Geoffrion
Directed by Sarah Denhardt
Stage Manager - AnnaLaura Wensel McKowen
Sound Design - Ian Armstrong
Fight Choreographer - Lorraine Ressegger

Cast:
Hamlet (1603 Quarto) - John Robert Keena
Hamlet (1623 Folio) - Matt Volner
Ofelia/Leartes/Corambis - Ty Hallmark
Ophelia/Laertes/Gertrude - Anne Veal
King/Polonius/Ghost - Felipe Cabezas
Queen/Claudius/Player - Anne Nottage

Venue:
The Bodega - at The Trading Post
1013 7th St NW, Washington DC, 20001
(Nearest Metro: Yellow or Green line to Mt Vernon Sq/Convention Ctr)
We apologize to patrons with disabilities, but the Bodega is not wheelchair accessible.

Dates:
Saturday July 11 @ 11pm
Sunday July 12 @ 1:15pm
Friday July 17 @ 10:30pm
Sunday July 19 @ 4:45pm
Wednesday July 22 @ 7pm

This production presented as a part of the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival

Tickets:
$15.00 (patrons must also purchase a Fringe Button to see any Fringe shows)
Order here or call 866.811.4111

BAD HAMLET is an experimental performance piece that explores the similarities and differences between the two published versions of Shakespeare's Hamlet: the familiar version published in the 1623 Folio, and the unauthorized "Bad" Quarto published in 1603. The latter, a shorter, leaner, less poetic version of the story, has only recently been given its due. But simply to perform the Bad Quarto isn't enough: how do the two versions compare, complement or contrast with one another? Reading only gives the merest hint; Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed, and thus we’ll take this literary comparison to the stage.

BAD HAMLET is a condensed, stereoscopic version of Hamlet in which the two texts are performed simultaneously; sometimes overlapping, sometimes in a Shakespearean 'tennis match,' with two Hamlets, two Ophelias, two Gertrudes, two Claudii, two Polonii, two Laerteses, and the Quarto's Player and Ghost, all under an hour, performed by a cast of six in a minimalist setting.

As a stereoscope takes two nearly similar photographs and combines them to create a 3D image, our goal, by simultaneously performing two versions of the same play, is for the subtle and not-so-subtle differences in the two texts to create a meta-Hamlet that provides additional depth and dimension to the emotions, motivations, and poetry of one of the greatest works of English literature.