The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0173 Thursday, 13 March 2008
[1] From: Paul Budra <
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Date: Tuesday, 11 Mar 2008 13:14:56 -0700
Subj: Re: SHK 19.0161 The Best Hamlet
[2] From: Marilyn A. Bonomi <
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Date: Tuesday, 11 Mar 2008 18:46:17 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 19.0150 The Best Hamlet
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paul Budra <
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Date: Tuesday, 11 Mar 2008 13:14:56 -0700
Subject: 19.0161 The Best Hamlet
Comment: Re: SHK 19.0161 The Best Hamlet
The best Hamlet I ever saw was a theatre at Langara College in Vancouver
BC. Langara College has what is arguably the best theatre program in
Canada (Studio 58), and I try to attend its performances whenever I can.
Anyway, this student cast was headed by Kyle Rideout, who has gone on to
be a regular in Vancouver's summer Shakespeare festival, Bard on the
Beach. Rideout is a slight man, almost elfin man. In this modern day
production he wore a tight, black suit and spiky hair, giving him a punk
look - think Johnny Rotten without the safety pins. The entire
production was intelligent and ingenious, but Rideout was a knock-out.
His delivery of the "to be or not to be" speech was simply the best I
have ever heard. He delivered it while walking through the audience,
pausing over the cruces of the speech as though he were are once
teaching us its lessons and trying to work out the implications of where
his mind was taking him. He knew when to be funny, and his camaraderie
with Horatio felt just right.
Anyway, I thought I was mad to be so impressed with a student
performance, but another colleague of mine who has seen the production
asked me about it. When I replied, "Best Hamlet I've seen," she said,
"Thank goodness you said that. I thought I was crazy, because it's the
best I've ever seen."
Paul Budra
Associate Professor
Simon Fraser University
[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Marilyn A. Bonomi <
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Date: Tuesday, 11 Mar 2008 18:46:17 -0400
Subject: 19.0150 The Best Hamlet
Comment: Re: SHK 19.0150 The Best Hamlet
Considering that I named Stacy Keach as one of my most powerful Hamlet
experiences, I found the following quite listed on Mr. Keach's website
most interesting:
"... of American Hamlets? I was too young to have seen Barrymore, but I
suppose the three most notable American Hamlets since have been Stacy
Keach, Kevin Kline and Sam Waterson. Kline was an athletic
soldier-prince, a sort of Henry V with doubts, while Waterson suggested
a scholar whose resolution was 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of
thought.' But for me, the best of that bunch was Keach, whose neurotic
passion and fierce poetry were quite wonderful."
Clive Barnes, New York Post, Sunday Dec 26, 1999 "
Having seen Mr. Waterson live on stage in both a comic and a tragic mode
(albeit not Shakespearean) I rather wish I had seen his performance to
compare it.
Mari Bonomi
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