Saturday night ended up being a hoot of a time, sitting in a packed Arthur Miller Theatre on north campus. I have always admired this theatre for truly connecting the audience to the performers. The setting makes the entire experience incredibly intimate. You can see the actors spit and sweat and almost feel the heat from their bodies. THAT is how close you are to the action. And the play was incredibly well suited for this intimate setting.
Fortinbras started off at the end of Hamlet, in the classic Shakespearean language, as we watched Hamlet tell Horatio to make sure his story was told. Immediately after Hamlet takes his last breath, Fortinbras walks onto the stage, immediately breaking the tension and shifting the entire feeling of the play as he speaks in modern day English and starts cracking jokes about the situation. This was the perfect way to set the stage for the rest of the performance. From then on, I could not stop laughing.
The lead actor who played Fortinbras was perfect for this hilarious character. He did an excellent job of making fun of himself and demonstrably making the situation humorous. In fact, the entire cast had an incredible chemistry that resulted in a great performance of comedy. I was definitely surprised at how much I audibly laughed. Even though I do not remember every detail from the original play Hamlet, I was able to catch onto most of the jokes and follow the plot line of Fortinbras. The entire performance was in this way accessible to anyone who would like to attend.
I definitely would rank this performance in the top 5 I have seen of the musical theatre department. Their comedic timing was perfect, the actors were amazingly rehearsed, and story was easy to follow, making it a relaxed and entertaining show. I love that our students are so amazingly talented that they can do both extreme drama and lighthearted humor. I definitely hope to see another comedy of this level again in the future!
