The ears are senseless that should give us our hearing,My parents were in town this weekend, and because I wanted to see the final production at the Guthrie Theatre's old location before they pack up and move to their fancy new digs on the river, I forced my parents to endure 3 and 1/2 hours of Elizabethan carnage.
To tell him his commandment is fulfilled,
That Rosincrance and Guildensterne are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?
Quickly now, name the three most famous theatrical productions in the world. What did you name? My list is 1)Grease 2)Romeo & Juliet 3)Hamlet. What's yours? You might be shocked to learn that neither of my parents have ever read or seen any production of Hamlet. Not even the infamous Kenneth Branaugh film version from the 1990s. I was.
At one point, near the end, as Gertrude drinks from the cup intended to ensure the early death of her handsome son, my father leaned over to my mother and said "The King put poison in that cup?"
Initially I became embarrassed - knowing that everyone sitting in the 3 rows immediately in front of my father had passed an unbearable judgment upon him. But then I recanted, and was actually rather proud of my dad. Here's a man, sitting though a production which surely was enough at times to bore him to sleep. Simply to satisfy the desires of his homo son. And yet, at the very end; through all of the messy olde English dialogue, my father actually had paid attention well enough to know exactly what was happening. Right on dad!
Having now seen Hamlet recently, I am reminded that it is a lovely play to perform , and an excruciating one to watch. Especially when the actor playing Hamlet is driving you mad with his perfectly symmetrical changes of inflection. I imagine the fellow is quite proud of his work as a Shakepearean dictator, but I do believe he's been looking through his very own pair of rose colored glasses. Whatever, the rest of the audience seemed to think he did well enough.
Audieu old Guthrie. And to the new: Surely, I'll be seeing you in the future, but this time I'll have to get in the car or take the bufth.
2 comments:
Would I believe that your parents have never seen a production of Hamlet before? Um, yes. Would you believe that I just spent Easter with people who cut their Pinot Noir with Sprite and were fondly reminiscing about the time so-and-so chased so-and-so out of the house and hit her with a belt buckle? Believe it.
I wanted to get tickets to a taping of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me but they tape on Thursday nights. Would you believe it? That sounds like a Saturday afternoon crowd to me.
Would you be interested in this or this?
I do. That sucks. No choice but to. Maybe and Yes.
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