I was in Toronto a few weeks too early to see Hamlet! A Puppet Epic at the Fringe. I would have been leery at first — I am more a fan of Dark Crystal puppets than Sesame Street puppets, but this show skews Sesame — but the reviews make it sound like fun. I especially like this framing device:
Len (Simon Lee) would rather play computer games than go off to Stratford to see Hamlet, but his friends, led by Lucy (Shira Taylor), re-enact Shakespeare’s story for him – Len becomes Hamlet and the others take on the other characters – to convince him of the narrative’s power.
Three cheers for stitching Shakespeare propaganda into children’s theatre!
Also, I’m sort of jealous they were able to condense the play to 60 minutes…although we timed a read-through this weekend, and I do believe my sliced-and-diced draft will, indeed, be two-hours’ traffic.
