Heather: It's just like Hamlet said, "To thine own self be true."
Cher: Hamlet didn't say that.
Heather: I think I remember Hamlet accurately.
Cher: Well I remember Mel Gibson accurately, and he didn't say that. That Polonius guy did.
(Clueless)
Last night, I finally got to see a show at the Opera House...Hamlet. I chose it for a couple of reasons: 1. I could get $30 tickets because I'm under 27 (yay! for encouraging theater for us younger folk), 2. although I am enamored with the Bard, I have yet to see many of his plays live, 3. I read Hamlet in senior year and realized then that it would probably make much more sense on stage, and 4. it's Hamlet! Unfortunately, I couldn't convince anyone to go along with me because no one I asked shares my love of 3 1/2 hour tragedies set in Denmark.
In short, the show was fantastic. Though they spoke the lines as written by Shakespeare, the costumes and set were given a modern spin - i.e. the actors wore suits, button down shirts, and dresses - though the climactic fight scene was still fought with swords. I forgot just how many iconic Shakespearean quotes/scenes come from this play; there's the obvious "To be or not to be" speech, the scene involving a skull (which doesn't occur, contrary to popular belief, during the aforementioned speech), "to thine own self be true," and the oft misquoted "the lady protests too much" (often stated as "the lady doth protest too much"). All of the actors were superb, and it was clear they had studied the material and understood what they were saying.
Unsurprisingly, the actor that really stood out to me was Brendan Cowell - aka Hamlet. I did a little research when I got home, and found out that he is a bit of a theater Renaissance man in that he acts in all the major mediums (film, tv, and theater), writes critically acclaimed plays, and occasionally directs. He has also never had formal acting classes and has had roles on some hit Australian shows. I enjoyed this interview I stumbled across in which he talks specifically about this role: "You only get one shot at Hamlet."
There were a few groups of secondary school students in attendance and, unfortunately for all of us, one of the teachers got ill in the final act and the show had to be stopped to attend to her...wait for it...during Hamlet's death speech. Yes, you read that correctly and yes, it was a little devastating. There were a couple of good things that came out of it. First, it showed the Brendan Cowell doesn't have a monstrous ego, as it was actually he who reacted to the commotion in the audience and had the stage manager stop the show. When she had been taken care of, he preceeded to rewind and re-perform the final speech, even though he had already done so. Also, not to make light of the situation, but *spoiler* in the last act of Hamlet pretty much everyone dies. Thus, when the show was stopped, quite a few dead bodies re-animated to keep track of what was going on. Once the show recommenced one actress (Heather Mitchell playing Gertrude, Hamlet's mother) milked her return to death for all it was worth and got an appreciative laugh from the audience. In the end, though some of the mood was lost, the finale still brought tears to my eyes in the good way.
On a totally unrelated note, I closed my Commonwealth bank account on Tuesday (aka my Australian bank). This was really the first step toward my leaving and my final days - after completing three final papers in the last week and a half. It's definitely starting to set in that soon, I'll be leaving Australia for the States. I'm betting now that it will be bittersweet; I'll certainly be glad to be home and see friends and family I haven't seen in 4 or 5 months, but I'm definitely going to miss this place. Especially the not working part...
I will leave you with some night shots of Circular Quay I took before the play:
ps - I'm still behind on one post, my Blue Mountains trip with Ellen, but I'm headed off to New Zealand for 9 days tomorrow, so don't be expecting that before I get back. After I take my final, I'll try to spend a day getting caught up on everything (which will be heaps after all the adventures I plan to have in New Zealand). And with that, I'm off to pack.
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