Taking Hamlet to Stratford..

Is this the best case of coals to Newcastle?!  Melting Pot is delighted, nay, overjoyed to announce that we shall be bringing Hamlet to the Dirty Duck in Stratford, on Sunday July 22nd at 4pm.  And we are performing outside on the beautiful garden terrace.  We decided on the 4pm start to enable folk to enjoy the town and river, have a spot of lunch before getting a drink in and settling down for a trip to Elsinore.  Tickets are £5 and available on the door.  We are also in high-powered talks (well, not that high-powered!) to bring Hamlet to the Station in Kings Heath in July - dates to be finalised.  We love performing this production so much and want as many people as possible to see it, to share our excitement and infatuation with the text and action.  Forgive the exuberance!  but I am excited...

The interesting part starts here..we have two new venues to which we have to adapt the staging (although we have already adapted it to three venues) and then we have to make sure we all remember the lines and moves....it's like riding a bike, isnt it?  mmmnm, perhaps a penny farthing, in full crinolines, in high summer...! It is going to be fun to see if our month 'off' will have subtly altered anyone's interpretation.  Come and join us, lets keep it rolling on.....!!

blowing our own trumpet or 'respeaking earthly thunder'

Phew!  well, here we are, on the other side of 5 phenomenal performances.  We had some challenges to adapt Elsinore to the intimate venue of the Lamp in Digbeth but we worked hard, concentrated and turned a pub back room into battlements and castle for the night.  Each night we played, our audiences watched and listened.  We made them work,and for two and a half hours their imagination and concentration transformed the space and by the end of the evening they were fellow Danes.....we have plans to schedule more dates in after a short break, not least because the audience members we spoke to urged us to ensure more people saw us.  I owe the cast and audience a little space to show their responses but before I do, I am going to risk sounding a little fey and pretentious...(what's new, I hear you ask!)....I can honestly say it has been a fabulous honour to serve that magnificent text and to approach, from however far and misty a distance, the mind of one of the world’s greatest human beings, to share, over the reach of 400 years, his thoughts and observations so beautifully and seemingly effortlessly expressed.

What people have said...

What a privilege it was to be in the audience last night for the performance of Hamlet.

A really excellent production for all sorts of reasons. The pace was perfect allowing real understanding of the language & subtleties of the plot, mixed with moments of thoughtful calm & absolutely manic outpourings. The light & shade in the production & the performances was superb, and the time flew by. I can honestly say it was the first time I really got what this play is all about (that includes performances by Brannagh & Anton Lesser) & it was truly riveting, perhaps partly due to the intimacy of the setting which created an intimacy & involvement that drew in the audience and which combined with the power & honesty of the performances.  I must congratulate Mat in particular for his willingness to look the audience in the eye & involve us in his thought processes...(..)...If ever there was an actor & a part that were made for each other this was it. I loved the quiet, reflective & resigned periods, moving through self doubt & meditative passages, mixed with those utterly electrifying moments of frantic, desperate, mad & wild rants. A tour de force.
A great ensemble & some super individual performances. 

Many congratulations to all – you deserve great praise for putting together such a superb production which will live long in the memory of those lucky enough to see it.

I hope you get the chance to perform it again!


and...(excerpt from Behind The Arras review by Gary Longden) please visit his page to see his very detailed review..

Therefore the challenge is either to produce the greatest performance  of Hamlet of all time, or to reinvent the staging. The smart choice is to go for the latter, which is what Melting Pot wisely decided to do. And if ever there was a play which Behind the Arras should be reviewing, it is Hamlet!

So, what was the twist? The full dramatis personae tops twenty players, Melting Pot managed with seven, comprising five women and two men. All male characters other than Hamlet and King Claudius  (and the ghost) were played by women. As in the setting, this was a device which echoed the practicalities of theatre in Elizabethan times.Companies, through economy, used men and women to play the opposite gender. Plays in which actors were playing the opposite sex, and whose roles were playing parts of the opposite sex, was a common theatrical device used to comic effect.

Scenery was nil, props minimal and costumes functional, but all very effective. Lighting was just two white light spots. It worked. No distractions, just the players and the play. The overall costuming was unisex black,boots, trousers and shirts for all. It is to the company’s enormous credit that the women who were playing male and female roles did not seek to establish gender by slipping on/ taking off  a skirt or shift dress. Instead they acted their gender, and did it very well.

I'm sorry it's too late to recommend this production to others. Excellent. Thank you very much. If and when you can, revive it and tour - audience member on last night.

Massive congrats and thanks to Amanda Bonnick, Jenny Stokes, Janet Bright, Philip Ward, Susan Doran , Matthew Brockington & the lovely Holly Jeffery of the Melting Pot Theatre Company for a superb performance of 'Hamlet' last night at the Lamp. I'm no critic or expert on Shakespeare but I know exhilarating theatre when I see it:) 

General audience reaction –

Very understandable, very accessible, saw David Tennant, saw Kenneth Branagh, yours was better!  pacy, interesting, wholly absorbing, great to be so up close, everyone involved so focussed, incredibly convincing, first experience of Shakespeare for my 12 year old son – he was totally captivated.

Enough of the luvvie-dom!  You get the point!  I have to admit, I am still going over my lines every day..I have left a part of my heart in Elsinore and will have to go back to get it...